Srinagar, Apr 18 (UNI) National Conference Vice President Omar Abdullah on Thursday said there was no surprise that Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) President Ghulam Nabi Azad won’t contest polls.
He said they were aware that Azad was not going to contest the Parliament elections.
“We were aware that he will not be contesting the elections”, Omar told reporters after NC candidate Mian Altaf submitted his nomination papers for the Anantnag-Rajouri parliamentary seat at the office of the Returning Officer in Anantnag on Thursday.
“When he (Azad) did not contest elections from Doda how could he contest from Anantnag,” Omar said.
DPAP on Wednesday announced that Azad won't be contesting from Lok Sabha polls from Anantnag and announced Mohammad Saleem Parray as the party candidate for the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat.
The NC leader said that now Azad’s party has fielded a candidate to show his presence and it will be made known by the public in polls how much support they have.
Asked that BJP has not yet fielded any candidate for the Anantnag- Rajouri parliamentary seat, Omar said, “There are still 24 hours to submit the nominations…let us see if they could get any person to field”.
Reacting to Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement wherein he accused NC and the Peoples Democratic Party of promoting militants, Omar said that “everybody knows where the gun culture came to Kashmir”.
The National Conference has been the biggest victim of gun culture.
“ More than 3000- National Conference leaders, workers, and ex-legislators became the target of the gun. If the Home Minister does not see the sacrifice of these people or ignores them, I could not say anything about that…that is very unfortunate”, he added.

UNI QAB/MJR BD