Abdullah family's decade-old ties with Ganderbal to end

With Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah deciding against seeking re-election from Ganderbal, the decades-old relationship of the Abdullah family with the constituency, considered to be its stronghold, will come to an end.
The ruling National Conference (NC) yesterday announced a fourth list of candidates with its working president Omar to fight from two constituencies- Sonwar in Srinagar and Beerwah in central Kashmir's Budgam district.
Omar, however, said he had made this decision two years ago.
"Having decided two years ago that I wouldn't seek re-election from Ganderbal I've continued to work for the constituency & will always do so," Omar said on the micro-blogging site Twitter.

The Chief Minister also brushed off criticism of fighting from two constituencies saying, "so when PM candidates do it we take that as a sign of weakness too or are we conspicuously silent at that time? #justasking".
Omar's grandfather and the NC founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah joined mainstream politics and fought elections from the constituency in 1975, when the then sitting Congress MLA from the constituency Mohammad Maqbool Bhat vacated the seat for him.

Abdullah won the by-elections, became the chief minister of the state and thus started the family's relation with the constituency.
Two years later, at the end of his tenure in 1977, Sheikh again chose Ganderbal to contest the polls and won.

After Sheikh's death, his son and Omar's father Farooq Abdullah fought the polls from Ganderbal in 1983, 1987 and 1996, and won them each time.
After Omar took over the reins of the party and decided to enter state politics, he too chose Ganderbal to mark his debut.
However, he lost the elections to PDP's Qazi Muhammad Afzal in 2002, a defeat avenged by him in 2008 by defeating Qazi from Ganderbal to become the chief minister of the state.