Vikar Rasool Wani is the Congress leader and a former Jammu and Kashmir state president. Wani won the Banihal constituency two consecutive times in 2008 and 2014. In the 2014 Jammu and Kashmir Assembly polls, Wani won the seat by defeating Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party (JKPDP) candidate Bashir Ahmed Runyal with a margin of 4,349 votes. Wani won the Banihal seat for the first time in the 2008 elections when independent candidate Showkat Javed was defeated by him by 3,033 votes. Wani is again contesting as a Congress candidate from Banihal in the 2024 Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections.