The prestigious Srinagar parliamentary constituency which votes on Thursday in the backdrop a 50-hour general strike called by the hardline separatist leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani is poised to witness a direct contest between the ruling National Conference-Congress combine candidate, Doctor Farooq Abdullah and opposition People's Democratic Party candidate and prominent Shia leader, Maulvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari.
Abdullah who recently resigned from the two assembly constituencies of Hazratbal and Sonawar,on his election to Rajya Sabha choose to contest from the constituency, where his sister Khalida Begum is among the 15 candidates in the fray.
The PDP candidate is expected to get sizeable number of Shia votes which are spread across the Srinagar and Budgam districts.
Farooq Abdullah is also poised to pocket some good number of Shia votes in the constituency as another important Shia cleric, Aga Syed Ruhullah is an MLA of the NC representing Budgam in the state assembly. The MLA trounced PDP rival, Mohammad Kamal Malik in the recently held assembly polls by over 9000 votes. The Gujjar votes in the Kangan assembly segment and of eight assembly constituencies in summer capital Srinagar will prove decisive in NC retaining the seat.
In the recently held state assembly polls all the eight constituencies of the capital city were won by the NC candidates.The Kangan and Ganderbal assembly seats were also won by the party.
"Dr. Farooq Abdullah will win the seat hands down as he is not confronted with any serious opposition candidate. The nearest opposed candidate is Maulana Iftikhar who, however, enjoys pockets of support in the constituency which may not be enough for him to win the seat," said an observer here.
In the last Lok Sabha polls, the contest was between the present chief minister Omar Abdullah and PDP candidate Ghulam Nabi Lone. The NC won the seat by over 23000 votes.Pollsters are keeping their fingers crossed on the impact of the boycott call by the separatists. However, they admit that the poll percentage will be low.
The constituency spread across the three district of Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal has a total electorate of 11,02,451. A total of 1466 polling stations spread across 15 assembly segments of the constituency have been set up for the voters.The authorities imposed strict security restrictions in capital city Wednesday to pre-empt anti-poll protests.
