National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah on Wednesday filed nomination papers from the Ganderbal assembly seat and made a passionate appeal to people of the constituency to vote for him saying his honour was now in their hands.
Omar, accompanied by senior party leaders and his sons, filed the papers before the Returning Officer at the Mini-Secretariat, Ganderbal.
He reached the Mini-Secretariat sitting atop a vehicle, surrounded by a huge number of enthusiastic supporters.
Later, addressing a gathering of party workers, Omar got emotional and removed the cap from his head and appealed to voters with ‘folded hands’ to vote for him from the Ganderbal Assembly seat.
“Today I want to say only one thing. My cap, my turban and my honour are in your hands,” Omar said.
He requested party workers to vote for him and give him a chance to serve people of the Assembly segment in true sense.
“Today I am requesting hand-folded to you to reach out to every door for my success in elections,” Omar said.
He urged party workers to hold a single rope and keep faith in Allah to achieve success. “If we hold a single rope, and keep our belief firm on Allah, success is surely ours”.
This marks the return of Omar to the constituency that he represented from 2009 to 2014 when he was the chief minister of the NC-Congress coalition government in the erstwhile J&K state.
He fought and won the 2014 assembly polls from Beerwah assembly seat in central Kashmir’s Budgam district. Abdullah had also contested from Sonwar seat in Srinagar, but was defeated there by then PDP leader Mohammad Ashraf Mir.
Ganderbal has been bastion of the NC and the Abdullahs with NC founder Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah and incumbent president Farooq Abdullah having represented the constituency several times
After scrapping of Article 370 and bifurcation of erstwhile J&K state into two Union Territories by centre on August 5, 2099, Omar had vowed to not fight Assembly polls. But he recently made a U-turn and decided to contest the polls.