Srinagar, May 16: Union Home Minister Amit Shah is arriving here on a two-day visit on Thursday evening. “He is scheduled to chair a security review meeting in which senior officers of the Army, security forces, intelligence agencies and local police will be present. On Friday, the Union Home Minister is scheduled to meet local party leaders, delegations from the Pahari community and trade union bodies. Civil society members are also scheduled to meet him,” said Altaf Thakur, senior local BJP leader. Amit Shah’s visit comes at a time when the BJP has fielded no party candidate in any of the three Lok Sabha seats in Kashmir.
Unofficially, the BJP has supported candidates fielded by the J&K Apni Party headed by Syed Altaf Bukhari and the People’s Conference (PC) headed by Sajad Gani Lone. J&K Apni Party has fielded Zafar Iqbal Manhas for the Anantnag-Rajouri seat and Mohd Ashraf Mir from the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat. Sajad Gani Lone of the PC is fighting the Lok Sabha election from Baramulla constituency. J&K Apni Party has supported Sajad in the Baramulla seat and has not fielded any candidate against him in the constituency.
The former chief minister and vice president of National Conference (NC), Omar Abdullah is fighting the election from Baramulla and he is pitched against Sajad Lone of the PC, Fayaz Ahmad Mir of the PDP and the incarcerated former MLA, Engineer Rasheed of Awami Ittihad Party. In the Anantnag-Rajouri constituency, Zafar Iqbal Manhas of the Apni Party is pitched against Mian Altaf Ahmad of the NC and Mehbooba Mufti of the PDP. Baramulla goes to vote on May 20 and Anantnag-Rajouri on May 25. Srinagar constituency already went to polls on May 13 where Syed Ruhullah of the NC is fighting Waheed ur Rehman Parra of the PDP.
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