Anantnag Lok Sabha Constituency
Constituency number: 3
Total electors: 12,99,659 (2014 estimates)
Female electors: 6,15,929
Male electors: 6,83,691
Reserved: No
Delimited: No
Assembly Constituencies: Tral, Pampore, Pulwama, Rajpora, Wachi, Shopian, Noorabad, Kulgam, Hom Shali Bugh, Anantnag, Devsar, Dooru, Kokernag, Shangus, Bijbehara, Pahalgam
Results in the last four elections: In 1999, JKNC candidate Ali Mohammed Naik won the election from this constituency. In 2004, JKPDP leader Mehbooba Mufti beat the JKN candidate by over 38,000 votes to be elected as the MP from here. Mirza Mehboob Beg, the JKN candidate who had been defeated in 2004, won the majority in 2009. Mufti won again in the 2014 election but resigned as MP in 2016 to become the chief minister of the state.
Demographics: Lying in the southern part of the Kashmir Valley, the Anantnag constituency is spread across four districts of Shopian, Pulwama, Kulgam, and Anantnag. Interestingly, the Election Commission of India, in an unprecedented move, has decided to hold elections in this constituency in three phases. Politics in this strategically important constituency has been boiling since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in July 2016.