8 october 2024 : Congress General Secretary and former minister Ghulam Ahmad Mir is leading in the assembly election from the Dooru constituency in South Kashmir, as results were being announced on Tuesday, October 8.
Early trends show that Mir’s closest competitor is Mir Mohammad Ashraf Malik of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a retired district and sessions judge.
Background on Dooru
Dooru, in Anantnag district, was the first constituency in Kashmir to see prominent campaign events, featuring Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Kanhaiya Kumar, as well as former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, who all campaigned for Mir.
In the 2014 assembly election, PDP’s Syed Farooq Ahmad Andrabi won the seat by just 161 votes. Mir has served as Dooru’s MLA twice, in 2002 and 2008, and has also held roles such as Congress president in Jammu and Kashmir and tourism minister.
During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections for South Kashmir’s Anantnag constituency, both Mir and PDP’s Mehbooba Mufti lost to Hasnain Masoodi of the National Conference (NC).
Rahul Gandhi kicked off the Congress campaign in Kashmir from Dooru on September 4. The seat went to polls in the first phase on September 18, alongside 23 other constituencies in South Kashmir and Jammu. NC leader Farooq Abdullah’s support for Mir emphasized the coalition between Congress and NC. Historically, from 1962 to 1996, Dooru was a stronghold for the NC.
Mir first contested from Dooru in 1996 but lost to Ghulam Hassan Wani of JKNC. He was involved in a controversial 2006 sex racket case but was acquitted in 2012 by a special CBI court, as all prosecution witnesses turned hostile. Mir, a staunch ally of veteran Congress leader Saifuddin Soz, has been known for opposing former Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad.