 Early Times Report
Jammu, Aug 20: Even as leaders of both the parties have maintained a guarded silence over ongoing talks on seat-sharing, the visit of Rahul Gandhi along with senior Congress leaders are aimed at forging pre-poll alliance with the National Conference.
Sources said that for the last two days, senior leaders of both the parties have been engaged into discussions to finalize seat-sharing agreement. “There is still stalemate over number of seats the NC is going to vacate for the Congress in Kashmir Valley”, sources said and added that every thing would be cleared within a day or two.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, and Congress President, Mallikarjun Kharge, will be
visiting Jammu and Kashmir for two days starting Wednesday.
K C Venugopal, Congress General Secretary in-charge of the Organisation, announced the visit on X, stating, “On 21st and 22nd August, Hon’ble Congress President Shri Mallikarjun @kharge ji and Leader of Opposition Shri @RahulGandhiji will be visiting Jammu and Srinagar for key meetings in preparation for the upcoming assembly elections.”
During their visit, Gandhi and Kharge will meet with th
“On 21st and 22nd August, Congress President and Leader of Opposition will be visiting Jammu and Srinagar for key meetings in preparation for the upcoming assembly elections.”
“They will discuss the seat-sharing formula with NC leaders, with the pre-poll alliance nearly finalized,” according to Congress sources.
The two leaders will also meet with Pradesh Congress Committee heads to discuss the seat-sharing arrangements.
NC President Dr. Farooq Abdullah recently stated that there would be no pre-poll alliance with any political party, expressing confidence that the NC would secure a majority in the 90-member J&K Assembly independently.
In the previous Lok Sabha elections, Congress and NC had an alliance. Congress was allocated two seats in the Jammu division and the lone Lok Sabha seat in Ladakh, while NC received three seats in Kashmir.
The Congress lost both seats in Jammu to the BJP, and the Ladakh seat was won by an NC rebel who defeated both BJP and Congress candidates.
In Kashmir, NC won the Srinagar and Anantnag-Rajouri seats, while Independent candidate Engineer Rashid defeated NC Vice President and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in Baramulla. | 