Fierce Battle Unfolds In Handwara: Lone, Ramzan In the Fray
In the last phase of the Assembly election, North Kashmir is going to witness an intense political showdown. Among the 16 assembly segments in the region, Handwara is in one of the toughest electoral challenges as People’s Conference (PC) chief Sajjad Gani Lone and National Conference (NC) veteran Chowdhary Mohammad Ramzan are in the fray.
Sajjad Gani Lone
The presence of Lone makes the seat a high-profile one. Though the PC chief is also contesting from Kupwara aside from Handwara, his focus is on the latter considering it as a party bastion.
The party founder and Sajjad Lone’s father, the late Abdul Gani Lone, secured victory from Handwara three times: in 1967, 1972, and 1977. In the 1967 and 1972 elections, he won the seat on a Congress ticket, and in 1977, he retained the seat on a Janata party ticket. Then the constituency witnessed NC unleashing victory in the seat in the following years.
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In 2014, Sajjad Lone contested for the Handwara seat and secured 29355 votes. He has defeated NC leader Chowdhary Ramzan by a margin of 5424 votes.
During his campaigns, he stresses on developmental projects he brought to the assembly segment in the past, especially a medical college and other smaller projects.
Lone lost the Lok Sabha elections early this year from the Baramulla Lok Sabha seat. He was defeated by former MLA and AIP chief Sheikh Abdul Rashid, alias Engineer Rashid.
Chowdhary Mohammad Ramzan
Senior NC leader and former minister Chowdhary Mohammad Ramzan is seeking his fifth win from the constituency. While Abdul Gani Lone was maintaining victory in Handwara, Ramzan contested from the assembly segment in 1983 and wrested the seat. He defeated Lone by just 10 votes. In the 1987 and 1996 polls, he retained the seat. However, Lone’s backed independent candidate Ghulam Mohudin Sofi defeated Ramzan in 2002. In the 2008 polls, he secured his fourth win from the constituency by defeating Sofi by a margin of 11,590 votes.
During his campaigns, he sought support, cooperation, and votes from electorates in Handwara and claimed that his party has always stood for the rights of people. In his latest appeal, he requested Kashmiri Pandits (KPs) votes and pledged to address their longstanding concerns.
“The NC has always stood for a united Kashmir, a place where every community, including Kashmiri Pandits, has a voice and a rightful space,” the Daily Excelsior quotes, as Ramzan is saying.
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Meanwhile, the other candidates in the fray include Awami Ittehad Party’s (AIP) Abdul Majid Banday, PDP’s Gauhar Azad Mir, and BJP’s Ghulam Mohammad Mir. In certain areas, the PDP and BJP maintain considerable local support. For the AIP candidate, Baramulla MP Engineer Rashid’s support itself makes him a strong contender.
Handwara is part of Baramulla-Kupwara Lok Sabha constituency. In the Lok Sabha polls, the first one after the Central government’s abrogation of Article 370, the assembly segment recorded the highest voter turnout of over 67.5%.
