Ghulam Ahmad Mir: Congress Veteran To Retrieve Dooru Assembly Seat (image:facebook.com/GAMirINC)

Congress general secretary Ghulam Ahmad Mir is a former Jammu and Kashmir unit President. In the upcoming Assembly elections, he will be contesting from Dooru assembly segment in Anantnag district.

Earlier, Mir, a Congress veteran, served as a legislator representing Dooru assembly constituency twice and also as a minister in National Conference-Congress coalition government twice. He served as the president of Jammu and Kashmir Congress since 2015 and in 2022 resigned from the post ahead of polls.

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After submitting nomination papers from the assembly constituency, speaking to ANI, Mir said that the people are suffocated by the torture of the BJP and that’s why the INDIA alliance has always demanded democracy in the region.

“The people of J&K did not have any representation for the last 11 years. The people are suffocated by the torture of the BJP and the central government. That’s why the INDIA alliance always demanded democracy in J&K. The public should get the opportunity to choose their representative. The people here will participate and form the government. BJP is frustrated by the unity of the INDIA alliance here,” ANI reports as he is saying.

He also stated that regional parties in J&K, who did not come under the umbrella of INDIA bloc might be “sailing in two boats”. The Congress veteran claimed that assembly polls are an opportunity for the people of J&K to democratically “undo the injustices done to them” after the BJP came to power in 2014. Continuing further, about NC-Congress alliance Mir said that it will become the “voice of the people.”

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In 2014 Assembly elections, PDP’s  Syed Farooq Ahmad Andrabi won the seat by defeating Mir by a margin of 161 votes.

In 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Mir contested from high profile Anantnag seat and lost to National Conference (NC) candidate Mian Altaf Ahmad. Though Anantnag a PDP bastion,  party chief Mehbooba Mufti lost the polls. In 2014,  she won the seat by defeating NC’s Mehboob Beigh. In 2016, Mufti vacated the seat after becoming the Chief Minister of the state. The by-election for Anantnag was not able to held due to delicate security situation.

J&K Assembly elections will be held on three phases –  September 18, September 25 and October 1. The results will be announced on October 4.