The Congress and National Conference on Monday announced its seat-sharing arrangements for the upcoming Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, ANI reported.
Of the total 90 constituencies, the National Conference will contest from 51 seats, said Congress chief in the Union territory Tariq Hameed Karra, adding that his party will be fielding candidates from 32 seats. “We have agreed to have a friendly but disciplined contest on five seats.”
He added: “Over and above these 88 seats, we have left one seat for Communist Party of India (Marxist) and one seat for Panthers Party…”
All the parties are constituents of the Opposition INDIA bloc at the national level.
Elections for the Assembly in Jammu and Kashmir will take place in three phases on September 18, September 25 and October 1. The counting of votes will take place on October 4.
On August 22, the two parties announced a pre-poll alliance for the Assembly elections in the Union territory, the first since the abrogation of Article 370.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, on August 5, 2019. It also bifurcated the state into two Union territories: Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
On Sunday, National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah told the Peoples Democratic Party to withdraw the candidates it has fielded for the Assembly elections in the Union territory, claiming that its manifesto was “almost the same” as his party’s, The Indian Express reported.
The National Conference released its manifesto on August 19, while the Peoples Democratic Party released the document on Saturday.
Abdullah’s remarks came a day after Peoples Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti said that her party would extend complete support to the alliance between the National Conference and Congress if the two parties adopt its agenda.
Abdullah on Sunday referred to Mufit’s comments, saying that her party had “all our agenda” in her manifesto. “You [Mufti] have already accepted our entire agenda,” he said at a rally Ganderbal. “Now, withdraw your candidates and leave the field.”
Referring to the similarities in the manifesto, Abdullah said that his manifesto promised about 200 units of free electricity, which the Peoples Democratic Party had also mentioned in theirs.
“We talked about one lakh jobs, and they have also talked about one lakh jobs,” he said. “We talked about the opening of these roads, and that is in their manifesto as well… Whatever my colleagues kept in our manifesto, that is in their manifesto as well.”
On Saturday, Mufti also remarked that the alliance between the National Conference and Congress was limited to seat-sharing. She said that her party’s agenda was to resolve the “Kashmir problem” within the country’s legal framework.
Mufti’s manifesto has promised to restore Jammu and Kashmir to its “original status” and to push for regional cooperation between India and Pakistan.