KL Report
SRINAGAR
The son of slain Hurriyat leader (Abdul Gani Lone), Sajjad Lone registered his maiden win from Handwara seat. He defeated his nearest rival NC’s Chowdhary Mohammad Ramzan by 5423 votes.
Against Ramzan’s 23932, Lone polled 29355 votes. Total 12 candidates were in the fray from Handwara, but the contest was mainly between Lone and Ramzan.
Before National Conference’s Chowdhary Ramazan won Handwara constituency in 1983, it was slain Hurriyat leader Abdul Gani Lone who won the seat thrice: in 1967 and 1972 on Congress ticket, and in 1977 on Janta Party ticket.
Lately after Narendra Modi and Sajjad Lone met this fall, Handwara constituency created a great political interest.
A brief fact-finding reveals that except losing the seat to Independent Sofi Ghulam Mohiuddin in 2002, Ramzan had maintained his firm grip over seat since 1983 until 2014. A law graduate Ramzan won last election defeating his nearest rival Sofi by a victory margin of 11,590 votes out of total 57678 votes polled. Ramzan polled 27907 against Sofi’s 16317 votes; while PDP’s Ghulam Ahmad Mir polled only 3417 votes.
