NC ties up with Congress for all 90 seats in J&K polls
NC President Farooq Abdullah confirmed an alliance with Congress for all 90 assembly seats in Jammu & Kashmir, possibly including PDP post-elections.
Srinagar National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah on Thursday said that his party has finalised an alliance with the Congress for all 90 assembly seats in Jammu & Kashmir, and added that they were open to also bringing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on board after the elections, indicating the possibility of the three INDIA bloc members coming together in the Union territory’s political arena.
The former J&K chief minister made the announcement hours after Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge met him and his son, NC vice president Omar Abdullah, in Srinagar.
“We had a good meeting in a cordial atmosphere. The alliance is on track, and it will run smoothly. The alliance is final, and it will be for all 90 seats. Our common program is to fight together and defeat the divisive forces in the country,” Abdullah said, and added that the two parties will soon formalise a seat-sharing pact.
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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.
“Statehood is very important for all of us. This has been promised to us. This state has witnessed bad days, and we hope it will be restored with its full powers. For that, we stand together with the INDIA bloc,” Abdullah said, adding that former MLA and CPI(M) leader Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami also extended support to them.
Congress general secretary and former president of J&K unit Ghulam Ahmad Mir said the two parties took different factors into consideration before sealing the alliance: “We resolved almost all hurdles and both the parties even agreed to some sacrifices for the sake of a fruitful coalition.”
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior Congress leader said: “The NC will likely get around 50 seats and the Congress between 35-38 seats. Some allies will also be accommodated.”
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 with 28 seats and formed an alliance of ideological extremes with the BJP, which had 25 seats. But the coalition collapsed early in 2018 after the BJP withdrew support and Governor’s Rule was imposed in June. The NC won 15 seats in the 2014 elections, and the Congress 12.
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Asked if there was a possibility of the PDP also joining the alliance, Abdullah said: “Let us first go through the polls, then we will look into those things. No doors are closed for anybody.”
Although part of the INDIA bloc and the Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), the NC and the PDP continue to have a tumultuous relationship. The two main regional parties of the region were unable to reach a seat-sharing pact for the recently held Lok Sabha elections, accusing each other of violating the coalition agreement. The NC and Congress contested the polls together, with the former winning two of the three seats it contested on and the latter failing to open its account. The PDP was also unable to win a single Lok Sabha seat.
PDP spokesperson Tahir Sayed took shots at the NC but also said that they were not against any alliance.
“Our fight for democratic principles, which is more important than getting power. The NC is more concerned about seats than our collective fight . We are part of INDIA bloc as we have ideological alliance with them...we are not against any kind of alliance”.
The three-phase electoral contest will also be the first assembly polls in Jammu & Kashmir since a controversial delimitation exercise earmarked 47 assembly seats for Kashmir and 43 for Jammu. The panel gave Jammu six additional seats and Kashmir one, sparking allegations from the Opposition that the balance was tilting in favour of Hindu-majority Jammu. The panel also reserved nine seats for scheduled tribes, a first, renamed some assembly constituencies, and redrew some others.
Welcoming the alliance, Tarigami said: “It is time now that the secular parties act together and defeat those in power who have been doing away with whatever constitutional guarantees were there for J&K.”
Political expert and retired political science professor at Kashmir University, Noor Baba, said the alliance between NC and Congress was expected: “ The alliance between the two in the changed political circumstances makes sense. I think they have made their chances of forming a government in J&K brighter.”
Meanwhile, Union Minister G Kishan Reddy challenged the Congress to clarify its stance on Article 370 and the National Conference’s resolution to revoke it.
“Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi should inform the country about the National Conference’s resolution. Tarun Chugh has already questioned them. They should also clarify the Congress’ stand on Article 370,” Reddy — the BJP’s election in-charge for Jammu and Kashmir — told reporters at the BJP headquarters.
Earlier in the day, Gandhi addressed party workers on the second day of his J&K visit and said the Congress will forge an alliance for the polls, but it won’t be at the cost of party functionaries’ interests.
“An alliance is happening... I want our workers and leaders to get respect from whatever alliance takes place,” he said. The Congress MP added that the party will continue to push for the restoration of J&K’s statehood. “We want statehood for you. We want you to run your state the way you want to, this is the message we came to convey,” he said.
Attacking the BJP, he said that the Centre snatched away the representation of the people of the region. “For the first time in the history of independent India, a state was made a Union territory. In independent India, new states were carved out ... but never was a state was downgraded into a UT,” Gandhi said.
Kharge told leaders of the party’s J&K unit that the Lok Sabha elections proved that the Opposition can take on the BJP if they stand united.
“We are interested in contesting the elections unitedly with other parties in Jammu & Kashmir. We have had success as well. We have seen the results in the Lok Sabha polls,” he said.