Farooq Abdullah has opted out of the general election in the Kashmir Valley but his son and former chief minister Omar Abdullah will be contesting from Baramulla, the National Conference announced on Friday.

Prominent Shia leader Agha Ruhullah, one of the strongest voices in favour of the restoration of Article 370, will be fielded from Srinagar, the seat Farooq represented.

Former minister Ruhullah’s nomination despite his Shia supporters lacking the numbers in Srinagar constituency reflects the party’s eagerness to cash in on his tough pro-370 stand, which seems to be gaining in popular appeal.

The decision comes on a day Prime Minister Narendra Modi dared the INDIA bloc at a rally in Udhampur, Jammu, to restore Article 370 if it won the election and see the consequences.

Party sources said Farooq, 86, had decided not to contest because of health reasons. The veteran, who has fought elections for over four decades, remains NC president. It was Farooq who announced the candidatures of Omar and Ruhullah at a news conference.

While the NC will contest from the three Valley seats, ally Congress will do so from the two in Jammu and the lone seat in Ladakh. The NC candidate for Anantnag is Mian Altaf.

Omar is the third former chief minister to enter the poll fray after Mehbooba Mufti and Ghulam Nabi Azad,both of whom will contest from Anantnag.

Mehbooba and Omar have vowed not to fight Assembly elections until Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood is restored.

Omar indicated that he was contesting from Baramulla because the BJP was effectively in the fray there, althoughby “proxy”.

“I want to defeat these forces in north Kashmir,” he said, without naming former minister Sajad Lone, who is contesting from Baramulla and is seen as a BJP ally.

The BJP has not announced its candidates for the Valley seats so far and is believed to be backing some of its “secret allies”. Omar challenged the BJP to field its own candidates in the Valley.

“For all the talk of (Article) 370, development, normalcy, why not field a BJP candidate in the election instead of proxies?” Omar said. “If they do not lose their deposits, I will quit politics.”

Ruhullah’s candidature seems to owe solely to his unflinching stand against the August 5, 2019, developments.

He had in 2020 resigned as the party’s chief spokesman and publicly rebuked Omar for signalling his readiness to contest (Assembly) elections even without the restoration of Article 370.

Omar had set only one condition — the restoration of statehood — for returning to electoral politics, fuelling speculation that he had sold out to Delhi.

Ruhullah on Friday said he remained committed to restoring the “dignity” of Jammu and Kashmir — anallusion to Article 370.

The former minister has in the past enjoyed little support in Srinagar. He represented the Assembly seat of Budgam, which was earlier part of the Srinagar parliamentary seat but has now been clubbed with Baramulla.

His candidature is being seen as evidence of how his stand on Article 370 has drawn support across sectarian lines.

Srinagar has tended to boycott elections since the outbreak of militancy over three decades ago. NC sources said Ruhullah was likely to receive the support of many people who had never or rarely voted before.

Ruhullah’s father Agha Syed Mehdi, a Congress veteran, was killed by militants. His uncle Agha Hassan Mehdi was a key Hurriyat leader in the separatist conglomerate’s heyday.