National Conference Additional General Secretary Dr Sheikh Mustafa Kamal Thursday said that Syed Ali Geelani won the Sopore seat in 1977 elections by a slender margin of 34 votes while then then Assistant returning officer Baramulla Shri Trisal desired to declare National Conference candidate Hakim Habidullah as the winner and sort Sheikh Sahab approval on phone which he flatly refused and reiterated instead that even if the difference is only one vote in favour of Syed Ali Geelani his name should be announced . According to Kamal this conversation took place in the sitting room of his house 10-MA Road, Srinagar where he himself was present. “Narrating this to me sheikh Sahab has a loud laugh,” Kamal said in a statement in response to an article with regard to rigged 1987 Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir published in a local English Daily. The statement of the Kamal to CNS has given an impression that Sheikh was all power and had a complete hold over the State bureaucracy. Kamal claimed that 1987 Assembly elections were not rigged as the allegations were not proven. He said that the resurrection of Mufti Sayeed and Jamati Islami based MUF of 1987 from ashes was an attempt to dislodge National Conference from Power. (CNS)