BARRING one seat in Kashmir province and four in Jammu, where they will be in a friendly fight, the National Conference and Congress sealed their deal on Monday for the coming Assembly elections in the Union territory. After negotiations at NC president Farooq Abdullah’s residence lasting through the day, culminating on the eve before the nomination deadline for the first phase of voting ends, the parties announced that of the 90 seats in J&K, the NC will contest 51 and the Congress 32, putting aside one constituency each for the CPI(M) and J&K Panthers Party. The five seats where both the NC and Congress will field candidates are Sopore, Banihal, Bhaderwah, Doda and Nagrota. Announcing the seat-sharing formula with Farooq Abdullah beside him, Congress general secretary K C Venugopal said: “The objective of our alliance is to save the soul of Kashmir. The BJP is trying to destroy it. That is why the Congress and National Conference have come together… to form a government that is friendly to the people of J&K.” Leaders from both parties said the discussions were held in a cordial atmosphere and expressed confidence about forming the next government in J&K. While the alliance had been announced on August 22, when Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge called on the NC leadership in Srinagar, the finalisation of the seats took four days due to the Congress demand for more seats in Kashmir. The NC was not keen as it saw itself as the stronger partner in the Valley, and offered that the Congress take the lead in Jammu. On Monday morning, Venugopal flew in with Congress leaders Salman Khurshid and Pawan Khera to Srinagar to work out the final details. In the first phase involving 24 seats, which vote on September 18, the NC will contest 12 seats in the Valley, and six in the Jammu region. The Congress will contest three in the Valley and 2 in the Jammu region. The CPI(M)’s M Y Tarigami will contest from the lone seat for the party, Kulgam in South Kashmir, in the first phase. Soon after the seat announcement, the NC announced its list of candidates for the first phase, which held few surprises. The prominent faces who have been given tickets include Hasnain Masoodi, Khalil Band and Bashir Ahmad Veeri. Masoodi, who defeated Mehbooba Mufti in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, will contest from Pampore, Veeri will taken on the PDP's Iltija Mufti in Bijbehara, and Khalil Band, who won the 2014 Assembly elections from Pulwama on the PDP ticket, will be up against PDP youth wing president Waheed Parra. In Jammu, the NC has fielded Sajad Ahmad Kitchloo from Kishtwar and Kahlid Najeed Suharwardy from Doda. J&K Congress chief Tariq Hameed Karra said the alliance had been stitched keeping the “sensitivities” of both parties in mind. “We reviewed some of the contentious constituencies and reached the decision to have this arrangement.” During his visit, Rahul had said that the party would keep the sentiments of its workers in mind before entering any agreement. Venugopal took on the BJP for its attack on the Congress over the NC’s manifesto, including a promise to seek restoration of Articles 370 and 35A. “The BJP had an alliance with the NC earlier and the PDP. The NC is the same old NC and the PDP is still the same PDP. They had an alliance with the same parties, which had the same programme. Every political party has its own manifestos and promises; we have our own promises. When we form a government, there will be a common minimum programme (CMP),” the Congress general secretary said. The BJP, starting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, had attacked the Congress soon after the declaration of its alliance with the NC, asking whether it agreed that special status should be restored to J&K. NC vice-president Omar Abdullah underlined that “at no point in time did the Congress party raise any objections to our manifesto”. He also said that in the initial stages of the alliance discussions, the local Congress leadership had asked if the NC would agree to a CMP. However, he said, “we told them that a CMP is always arrived at after you receive a verdict from the people”. Omar also hinted again that he was reconsidering his earlier announcement not to contest the elections, as he had once headed J&K when it was a state, “the most powerful state in the country”. On Monday, he said he did not want to send out “a wrong signal” by asking his party colleagues to contest and the people to cast their votes for an Assembly “that I may be suggesting that I look down upon”. Asked about the offer by the PDP – which is part of the opposition INDIA bloc, like the Congress and NC – that it would support the two parties if they backed its “pro-people agenda”, Omar said: “The Congress is the bigger partner in the INDIA alliance, they have sought to ally with us. We cannot tell them whom to talk to.” While 24 J&K Assembly seats will vote on September 18, 26 will do so on September 25, and 40 on October 1. The results are due on October 4.
