Congress Moves To Clear Seat-Sharing Roadblocks With National Conference

With the clock ticking on finalising candidates for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly election, Congress has rushed troubleshooters to Srinagar to clear the roadblocks in its seat-sharing talks with National Conference.

The last date for filing nominations for first phase of the polls is tomorrow. Senior Congress leaders KC Venugopal and Salman Khurshid will be meeting National Conference president Farooq Abdullah and his son and party vice-president Omar Abdullah today to iron out differences.

Earlier, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi met the Abdullahs and the two sides reached on agreement on contesting the elections together. But differences over seat-sharing emerged and the negotiations have hit a roadblock. The Congress has now rushed Mr Venugopal and Mr Khurshid to put an end to the impasse so that the parties can focus on prepping for the key election.

Ninety seats in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly are voting in three phases, with polling due on September 18, September 25 and October 1. Counting of votes is on October 4.

Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir were last held in 2014 after which the PDP tied up with the BJP to form the government. In 2019, the Centre revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated the state into two Union Territories.

Omar Abdullah last week said seat-sharing with the Congress has been finalised for most assembly seats and talks are on to reach consensus over the ones remaining.

“Consensus has been reached to a large extent. I can tell you that we have reached a consensus on the maximum seats out of the 90,” he told the media Friday.

“On few seats, we are adamant and on some others, the local leaders of the Congress are adamant. There will be meetings today as well and we will try to sort out the rest of the seats so as to announce our candidates,” he added.

According to sources, National Conference has offered five seats to Congress in Kashmir Valley and 28-30 in the Jammu region. The Congress is demanding more, including some traditional National Conference strongholds. The National Conference, sources said, has offered Congress the option for friendly contest on some seats claimed by both, but the local Congress leaders have not accepted this.

The BJP has hit out sharply at the Congress’s decision to join hands with National Conference for the key election. Union Home Minister Amit Shah has accused the Congress of risking the “nation’s unity and security to satiate its greed for power”. Mr Shah questioned if Congress and Rahul Gandhi support National Conference’s promises of “a separate flag for Jammu and Kashmir” and “restoration of Article 370 and 35A”. He also asked if the Congress supports promotion of “separatism again by engaging in dialogue with Pakistan instead of Kashmir’s youth” and on the “National Conference’s decision to start ‘LoC Trade’ with Pakistan”.

Responding to Mr Shah’s remarks, Omar Abdullah said the Home Minister has focused on only “one paragraph of the manifesto”. “I thank the Union Home Minister for mentioning our election manifesto. He has forced everyone to read it. The sad part is that he focused on only one paragraph,” he said.