from Sonwar and Hazratbal. After winning both seats, he vacated these for his rendezvous with the Rajhya Sabha, the upper house of Parliament. But it seems Abdullah is just in a mood of contesting, as many elections he can, and given his winning streak he may not be blamed.
Though he told reporters that being the president of his party, he was reluctant to contest but for party leaders’ insistence. True to his habit, however, in the same breath Abdullah said contesting elections keeps him fit. “My life will end fighting elections. . . This keeps me young and fit.”
However insiders say Abdullah’s decision to contest the Lok Sabha polls was forced by the Peoples Democratic Party’s choice of the candidate. The PDP fielded prominent Shia cleric Maulvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari from Srinagar. As Ansari wields lot of influence in the Shia dominated belts of Srinagar and Budgam districts, the National Conference sensing a strong contest did not want to risk the seat. Farooq Abdullah himself had to plunge in. Interestingly, the Awami National Conference has decided to field Abdullah’s sister Begum Khalida Shah against him. She had contested against Abdullah in the assembly elections too, but garnered very few votes. While Abdullah displays his vigour by contesting elections again and again, not many are impressed. Some people are calling it a mockery of electorate, who are electing representative only to be dumped. Others say the process exposes lack of strong candidates in the oldest Kashmir party. The Abdullah’s apparently haven’t let the party leadership grow enough, pushing Abdullah to come to its rescue again and again.  
Interestingly, Abdullah has responded to Hurriyat Conference’s invite of joining them by saying that he will reply to it after the Lok Sabha elections. Now that Abdullah hasn’t stuck to his secured seats
in the last four months, who knows he may seriously consider giving up his Lok Sabha seat for the Hurriyat berth after elections.

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