Srinagar, Oct 19 (IANS) The National Conference (NC), on Sunday, announced former Jammu and Kashmir Minister Aga Syed Mahmood as its candidate for the Budgam Assembly by-election, party spokesman said.

Aga Syed Mahmood was the NC MLA from the Pattan Assembly constituency from 1987 to 1990.

He was later the party legislator from Beerwah Assembly constituency from 1996 to 2000.

He was later a member of the Upper House of the then bicameral Legislature of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has already nominated Aga Syed Mohsin as its candidate for Budgam bypoll while the party nominated Devyani Rana as its candidate for the Nagrota Assembly bypoll.

The Budgam Assembly seat was won in 2024 elections by the NC Vice-President and current Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah.

He also won the 2024 Assembly polls from the Ganderbal constituency.

He later chose to resign from the Budgam seat and represent the Ganderbal constituency in the 90-member Assembly.

Devender Singh Rana won the 2024 Assembly election from Nagrota on a BJP ticket, but he passed away on October 31, 2024.

The BJP has nominated Devender Singh Rana’s daughter, Devyani Rana for the Nagrota bypoll.

The NC has offered the Nagrota seat to its ally Congress to field its candidate while a final decision on it is yet to be taken by the Congress high command.

There has been some bittering of relations between the NC and the Congress over sharing of seats for the four Rajya Sabha seats.

While the Congress wanted the NC to offer it a safer seat from the three seats where the alliance has a political advantage, the NC offered Congress the fourth Rajya Sabha seat to field its candidate.

The BJP has a clear advantage over the fourth Rajya Sabha seat and the party has fielded its State BJP President Sat Sharma for this seat.

The Congress later announced that it would not fight the Rajya Sabha polls from Jammu and Kashmir as it was disappointed by the NC decision to field its own candidates for the three Rajya Sabha seats.

Both Budgam and Nagrota Assembly constituencies is set to go to voting on November 11.

In the 2024 Assembly polls, NC won 42, BJP 29, Congress six, PDP three, CPI-M 1, Peoples Conference one, Aam Aadmi Party one, Awami Ittehad Party one and six Independents.

The Congress later decided to support the Omar Abdullah-led NC government from outside without joining it.

–IANS

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