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NC, Cong finalise 51-32 deal for J&K elections
The Congress and National Conference finalized a seat-sharing deal for 90 assembly seats, with NC contesting 51 seats and Congress 32. They aim to counter divisive forces.
Initial deadlocks over several seats notwithstanding, the Congress and the National Conference finalised the seat-sharing agreement for all 90 assembly seats on Monday evening.
Under the arrangement, which was announced by Congress’ local unit president Tariq Hameed Karra, the NC will contest on 51 seats, the Congress on 32 while there will be a friendly contest on the five seats. Another two seats have been left to accommodate allies, the CPI(M) and the Panthers Party.
After hectic parleys and two back-to-back meetings at the residence of National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, both the parties reached consensus on all 90 assembly seats.
The alliance between the two had earlier been announced by Abdullah after he and son Omar met Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and party president Mallikarjun Kharge at his Gupkar house.
In the last five days, the Congress and the NC leaders both tried to develop consensus on a few contentious seats,which both the parties were eyeing across Jammu and Kashmir. On Monday morning, Congress general secretary KC Venugopal and Salman Khursheed arrived in Srinagar and held two rounds of talks with the NC leadership. The final shape stamp was given to the seat-sharing agreement after four hours of talks.
In a joint press conference, Farooq Abdullah, Venugopal and Karra announced the seat-sharing agreement: “Our alliance has been forged against those forces who want to divide the country on communal lines. We completed our negotiations in a cordial atmosphere and Congress and the NC will jointly contest this election.”
Venugopal said the general idea of the alliance was to put together the soul of Jammu Kashmir. “On one side, the BJP is trying to destroy the soul of Jammu and Kashmir, the main idea of the INDIA bloc is to save the soul. We will fight together and form a government in Jammu and Kashmir.”
Sharing details about the seat-sharing agreement, Karra said, “We have agreed to hold a friendly contest on five seats in a very cordial and disciplined manner. We have left one seat for CPI(M) and one for the Panthers Party. We have stated numbers for each phase of polls for both Congress and the NC and will start issuing mandates from right now.”
Venugopal also said the alliance partners will have a common minimum programme, adding, “The people of Kashmir have been cheated by the BJP. Here, the state became UT and it was done by the BJP. While we believe in progress of people, unity and employment, the agenda of BJP is to divide the people.”
The first assembly elections in Jammu & Kashmir in a decade will be held in three phases on September 18 and 25, and October 1. They will be the first assembly polls in the restive region since its special status and statehood were scrapped five years ago and are likely to be the last step before the Union territory’s statehood is restored.
The NC and Congress formed a post-poll alliance in 2008, with Omar Abdullah leading the coalition government as the chief minister. The two parties did not tie-up for the 2014 polls and contested all seats separately. The PDP emerged as the single-largest party and formed an alliance of ideological extremes with the BJP. The coalition, however, collapsed early in 2018 after the BJP withdrew support and governor’s rule was imposed in June.
