Hope you don’t disappoint me: Mehbooba to voters ahead of polls in Anantnag-Rajouri

Srinagar, May 24 (PTI) “Hope you don’t disappoint me and give me an opportunity to be your advocate in Parliament,” PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said on Friday in her appeal to voters on the eve of polling in the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat.

The PDP chief, working to revive her party’s fortunes following its alliance with the BJP in 2015, is up against National Conference’s Mian Altaf and 18 others in the controversially redrawn constituency that votes on Saturday in the penultimate round of the seven-phase elections.
“Tomorrow you all will go to vote. I request you to think before casting your vote about who has supported you in difficult times,” the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said in a video message on X.

Mehbooba Mufti said her family, her party and she had paid a huge price for advocating the cause of the people.
“Despite that, I rose above caste and religion, and raised my voice for justice and will continue to do so,” she added.

“By supporting me and voting for me, you will definitely give me an opportunity to be your advocate in the Parliament and portray the issues we are facing,” she added.

She faces a challenge not just from prominent Gujjar leader and former minister Mian Altaf Ahmad but also from Apni Party’s Zafar Iqbal Manhas, hoping to turn the tables on both the PDP and the NC after he managed to get the BJP’s support in the Pir Panjal region.

The Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) of former chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has fielded Mohammad Saleem Parray from the seat.