Omar rejects reports of him looking for 'safer' assembly seat

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today brushed aside reports that he had decided to move out from his Ganderbal assembly segment to contest from a "safer seat" in the 2014 assembly elections.
There were reports that leaders of the ruling National Conference were not in favour of the Chief Minister contesting from Ganderbal, a traditional assembly constituency of the Abdullah family, citing a strong anti-incumbency.
A section of local media claimed Omar's uncle and the party's honorary general secretary, Mustafa Kamal, had "confirmed" that Omar will not contest from Ganderbal.
The Chief Minister, however, trashed the reports, saying he was an elected representative of the constituency and that his uncle cannot speak for him.

"Mustafa Kamal can talk for Hazratbal. He cannot talk for Ganderbal. I am the elected representative of Ganderbal. There is a year still for the elections and the rest we can talk then," Omar told reporters here.
Ganderbal, in central Kashmir, has been represented by three generations of the Abdullah family. The constituency was first represented by Omar's grandfather and NC founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah in 1974.
Omar's father, Farooq Abdullah, was elected to the state Assembly in 1982 and represented it till 2002.
In 2002, Omar, in his first assembly election, lost the seat to Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Qazi Mohammad Afzal, a local resident. Omar defeated Afzal in 2008 assembly elections and became the Chief Minister.