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| Congress seeks to contest one LS seat from Valley, NC reluctant | | | Bashir Assad
SRINAGAR, Nov 26: As the Parliament elections in the country draw closer, the state unit of Congress party has started asserting in Kashmir valley with many of its senior leaders demanding one out of three Lok Sabha seats of Kashmir valley in case it enters into a pre-poll alliance with its coalition partner-the National Conference ahead of Lok Sabha elections slated for April/May 2014.
Of late senior Congress leaders including the Minister for Tourism, G A Mir and senior Vice President and MLC, Ghulam Nabi Monga have openly stressed for contesting one seat from Kashmir to boost the morale of the party workers in the valley.
According to well placed sources, though the two coalition partners are yet to decide on pre-poll alliance and given the fact that the leadership of both the parties are tight lipped over the issue, the Congress leaders from Kashmir valley demand that one Parliamentary constituency should be left for congress in case the party enters into a pact with NC for Lok Sabha polls.
"Our party is interested in contesting at least one seat from Kashmir. The party has a stranglehold over North Kashmir and would like to contest from the Baramulla-Kupwara Lok Sabha seat," a senior Congress leader wishing anonymity told Early Times.
Senior congress leader and Minister for tourism G A Mir had on November 22 said, "There is a general feeling among our workers who have a pressing demand that the party should get its share in parliamentary seats of Kashmir valley. Our Panches and Sarpanches want Congress should lead and have representation in Kashmir."
Mir had also stated: "I also as a Congress worker demand the same keeping in view the bitter experience we had in Ladakh last time. In Ladakh we got an official mandate but a dummy candidate was fielded and he was owned after the results came out and he is now counted as an NC MP."
However, Senior Vice President of the Party, Ghulam Nabi Monga went one step ahead stating that the Congress party should not enter into pre-poll alliance and should contest all the six seats of the state saying the party has chances to win all the six. "Congress party was in a strong position in all the six Lok Sabha constituencies and the party has emerged strong in all the three regions of the state over the years" Monga said.
According to party insiders the congress party will demand Baramulla-Kupwara constituency which is presently represented by NC's Sharif ud Din Shariq.
However, NC on the other hand is not ready to surrender the seat stating that the surrender will shatter the faith of NC workers.
"We cannot surrender the Baramulla-Kupwara seat because it will hurt our party leaders and demoralize our workers," a senior NC leader said.
He said the party had apprised its president and Union Minister Farooq Abdullah of the situation and told him that there should not be any compromise on any Kashmir seat. |
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