Omar Abdullah claimed that the BJP would want a hung assembly as it would give it an excuse to extend the lieutenant governor's rule. Under the alliance, the NC will contest 51 seats, the Congress 32,

The National Conference’s pre-poll alliance with the Congress for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections was formed to give people an option to avoid a hung House, party vice-president Omar Abdullah

When Omar Abdullah took on the mantle of the NC from his father in 2002, he contested the assembly polls from Ganderbal but was defeated by the PDP's Qazi Mohammad Afzal. He, however, wrested the seat from Afzal in the 2008 polls and went on to become the youngest chief minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

This also marks the beginning of three-phase assembly polls – the first such exercise in the erstwhile state since the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019. The 24 constituencies voting today are spread across Pir Panjal - 16 in Kashmir and eight in Jammu region.

The National Conference's pre-poll alliance with the Congress for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections was formed to give people an option to avoid a hung House, party vice-president Omar Abdullah said on Sunday.

At a workers' meeting in Ganderbal, Abdullah made a heartfelt plea, saying, “My honour lies in your hands,” as he held his cap in his palms.

The constituency has been represented by the three generations of the Abdullahs comprising founder Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah, Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah