Vikar Rasool Wani, former president of the J&K Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC), was convicted by a court of five months imprisonment and a fine of ₹1,000 for violating the Model Code of Conduct (MCC).
He is the Congress candidate for the Banihal constituency, which will vote in the first phase of the J&K Assembly elections on September 18.
After disagreeing on seat-sharing, the National Conference (NC) and Congress fielded their candidates from this constituency in a ‘friendly contest’. The last day of filing nomination papers has passed. If Wani is disqualified in Banihal, the NC candidate, Sajjad Shaheen, will face the BJP in a direct contest.
During the 2012 Assembly elections, MLA Wani addressed a public meeting organised without official permission at the Junior High School in Mithepur village of Banihal. The then-Block Development Officer, Siyaram Varshney, registered a case against MLA Wani for violating the MCC. A Special MP MLA Court heard the case and found the charges valid. It sentenced Vikar Rasool Wani, Bharat Bhushan Sharma, Sachin, Ikramuddin and Nazim to five months in prison and imposed a fine of ₹1,000 each.
J&K Polls
The NC and Congress have entered a seat-sharing arrangement for the J&K Assembly elections. According to the arrangement, out of 90 seats, the NC is fighting 52 and Congress 3.
Both parties will field candidates for a ‘ friendly contest ‘ in the five Assembly seats of Sopore, Nagrota, Doda, Bhaderwah, and Banihal. The NC and the Congress have left two seats, one for CPI(M) and the other for the Panthers Party. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is the main contestant against the NC in the Valley.
The common challenge for both the NC and the PDP comes from Engineer Rashid’s Awami Itihad Party (AIP) and the ex-members of the Jamaat-e-Islami organisation. Those ex-members of the Jamaat are fighting the election as independent candidates. Four of these ex-Jamaatis have already filed nomination papers for the first phase of elections in J&K.
This story is based on an IANS-syndicated feed.
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