Early Times Report
Jammu, Apr 8: The National Conference and Congress on Monday formally announced seat adjustment on all the six seats of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh by rejecting claims of the coalition partner Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) Former Chief Minister and Vice President of NC Omar Abdullah along with Congress leaders Salman Khurshid and Pawan Khera in a joint press conference announced that both the parties would contest elections on six seats of J&K and Ladakh.
While Congress will contest on Jammu-Reasi, Udhampur-Doda, and Ladakh seats, the National Conference will field its candidates on Anantnag-Rajouri, Srinagar, and Baramulla seats.
When asked about sidelining PDP, which is one of the constituents of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), Congress leader Pawan Khera said that seat adjustment and alliance are two different things.
“J&K is a very small state having five seats so accommodating all coalition partners was a difficult task”, he said, adding, “We tried our best to accommodate PDP but the NC has genuine claims of three seats which the party had won in 2019 Lok Sabha elections”.
While replying to a question regarding the decision of the PDP to field its candidates on three seats in Kashmir Valley, Omar Abdullah revealed that during discussions PDP was assured to properly accommodate in the next Assembly elections but the party Omar Abdullah along with Congress leaders Salman Khurshid and Pawan Khera in a joint press conference announced that both the parties would contest elections on six seats of J&K and Ladakh.
We tried our best to accommodate PDP but the NC has genuine claims of three seats which the party had won in 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
PDP was assured that it would be properly accommodated in the next Assembly elections but the PDP leaders were adamant to contest LS elections.
PDP has announced to contest Lok Sabha polls on three seats in Kashmir and the party will support the Congress in Jammu.
As reported earlier, on Sunday PDP announced to contest Lok Sabha polls on three Lok Sabha seats in the Kashmir Valley, stating that the party will support the Congress in Jammu, however, the grand old party announced the seat-sharing deal with the National Conference snubbing the PDP.
Mehbooba Mufti will herself contest from the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha constituency where the National Conference candidate is prominent Gujjar leader Mian Altaf.
PDP youth president Waheed Para will contest from the Srinagar-Pulwama seat and former Rajya Sabha MP Fayaz Ahmad Mir will contest from the Baramulla constituency.
Omar Abdullah today formally announced to leave Ladakh Lok Sabha seat for the Congress party, saying “Congress and his party would contest all six seats of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, including Ladakh jointly”.
Omar’s statement clearly indicates that the NC leadership finally decided to leave the Ladakh seat for the Congress party despite the fact that it has a strong presence in the Kargil district.
In October last year, the National Conference, which is part of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A), had emerged as the single largest party in the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) Kargil by bagging 12 seats out of total 17 on which it fielded its candidates. | 