Owais Gul
Srinagar, Sep 09 : One of the eight assembly segments of Srinagar district—Habba Kadal, is heading towards a thrilling contest with the highest number of 16 candidates vying for the seat, slated to go to polls in the second phase of elections on September 25.
According to the news agency, a total 95546 electorate are set to decide the fate of 16 candidates, which include 47404 male and 48133 females.
The female voters have outnumbered the men from the constituency while the segment has the highest number of nine transgender voters.
The poll body has set up 128 polling stations for the seat where the beeline of electorates are expected to be witnessed on September 25.
However, considered as the bastion of National Conference (NC), the seat is heading towards a massive electoral battle with the major contest expected between Shameema Firdous, a three–time MLA and BJP’s Ashok Bhat, who is banking on migrant votes.
Some other candidates, who are expected to gain a massive vote from the seat include Apni Party’s Jeelani Hameed Kumar and Lok Janshakti Party candidate Sanjay Saraf.
In the previously held assembly elections, NC candidate Shameema Firdous won the elections in 2014 with a margin of 2359 votes. The runner up was BJP candidate Moti Koul, who bagged 2374 votes.
While the constituency is a bastion of NC, the BJP candidate is expected to get the support of the Kashmir Migrant voters and PDP’s Arif Laigaroo would gain a good chunk of votes in the polls as well.
The campaigning by the candidates is presently going on with all the candidates including the independents starting the door-to-door campaign to gain the maximum support of the voters.
The interesting battle is expected from the seat since the highest number of 16 candidates are vying for it. Besides, a total of five independent candidates are in the electoral fray.
Pertinently, an independent supported by Awami Ittehad Party (AIP), Ishtiyaq Qadri withdrew his nominations today while four nomination papers for four others were rejected on the day of scrutiny—
