The upcoming Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir will see the Congress and the National Conference (NC), constituents of the INDIA bloc, entering the fray in a pre-poll alliance. The parties ran a coalition government in J&K from 2008 to 2014 but have rarely forged pre-poll pacts for the Assembly elections. In fact, the two mainstream parties in J&K – the NC and the People's Democratic Party (PDP) – have done business with both the Congress and the BJP in the last two-and-a-half decades but have seldom fought elections together, instead coming together after polls to form governments. The PDP, notably, is also a constituent of the INDIA bloc at the national level but is a rival of the NC in J&K. The latest Congress-NC pact was on the cards but the development is remarkable, given that the parties share a turbulent history. The alliance is also politically significant since the NC manifesto, released last week, promises the restoration of Articles 370 and 35A, an issue the Congress has skirted in the past. Union Home Minister Amit Shah Friday asked the Congress to spell out its position. The relationship between the Congress and the NC has seen many ups and downs – from the incarceration of NC founder Sheikh Abdullah in the 1950s, their merger in the 1960s, the NC’s revival in the 1970s, the NC’s split and sacking of the Farooq Abdullah government in the 1980s, the NC joining the BJP-led NDA in the 1990s to the Congress joining the Omar Abdullah-led government in the 2000s. 1940s and 1950s The immediate aftermath of Independence saw Maharaja Hari Singh, the last ruler of the erstwhile princely state, signing the Instrument of Accession with India in October 1947 amid an invasion by Pakistan. He appointed Sheikh Abdullah as the Prime Minister of an interim government a year later. Singh left the state in 1949 after ensuring his son Karan Singh was appointed the Regent of J&K. The elections for J&K’s Constituent Assembly in 1951 saw the NC win 73 out of 75 seats but two years later, Abdullah was jailed and his government dismissed by Karan Singh, ostensibly under Jawaharlal Nehru’s orders. Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed of the NC succeeded Abdullah. While Abdullah was in jail, the NC swept the Assembly elections in 1957 and 1962. Mohammed remained the PM from 1953 to 1963. 1960s In 1963, Mohammed resigned and installed loyalist Kwaja Shamsuddin as the PM. But Shamsuddin resigned in early 1964, ostensibly under pressure from Nehru. The NC was then coerced to elect Congressman Ghulam Mohammed Sadiq as the PM. A year later, it merged with the Congress. The 1967 polls saw the Congress win 61 of 75 seats and an NC faction led by Mohammed eight. Abdullah was released later that year. 1970s There was a rapprochement in 1975. The Indira Gandhi-Sheikh Abdullah Accord brought Abdullah back to power. Abdullah also revived the NC. The Congress, however, withdrew support in March 1977 and the state was briefly placed under the President’s rule. The Assembly elections held after the Emergency later that year saw the NC win 47 seats and the Congress 11. 1980s Abdullah died in 1982 and his son Farooq Abdullah took over as the chief minister. A year later the NC won the Assembly elections again. The relations between the parties nosedived again when Governor Jagmohan dismissed the Farooq government in July 1984 and installed one headed by the Ghulam Mohammad Shah-led Awami National Conference, a breakaway faction. Farooq’s dismissal came after the NC was reduced to a minority following 12 MLAs and an Independent withdrawing support. In 1986, Jagmohan dismissed the Shah government and imposed the Governor’s rule, causing unrest in J&K. A worried Rajiv Gandhi decided to mend fences with Farooq, which led to his government being formed in November 1986 with the Congress's support. But the move created further unrest as the Valley saw it as Delhi’s blatant interference. The NC and the Congress fought the 1987 Assembly elections together, the infamous polls that were seen as “rigged” in favour of their alliance. The NC won 39 seats, the Congress 24 and the newly-formed Muslim United Front (MUF) four. Farooq resigned in 1990 and the state – facing an outbreak of armed militancy – was placed under the President’s rule till 1996. 1990s The 1996 Assembly polls saw the NC win 57 seats, the BJP eight, and the Congress seven. The NC, which did not participate in the Lok Sabha elections that year, had joined the non-Congress, non-BJP United Front. The NC, however, walked out of the UF two years later. Farooq sprang yet another surprise and joined the NDA in 1999. Joining hands with the BJP was akin to crossing the rubicon for the Abdullahs. Farooq’s son Omar Abdullah became a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led government. Omar was a Minister of State (MoS) from October 1999 till his resignation in December 2002. The NC’s decision to join hands with the BJP was not received well in the Valley and the 2002 Assembly elections, held months after the riots in Gujarat, were a disaster for the NC. Omar, who had taken over as the NC chief in July that year, contested from the family’s traditional seat of Ganderbal but lost. He resigned as the Union minister and the NC snapped ties with the BJP in July 2003. With the Congress and the PDP joining hands to form the government, the NC was relegated to the political wilderness. 2000s Omar, however, re-engaged with the Congress ahead of the 2008 trust vote over the Indo-US nuclear deal. The NC backed the UPA and the Parliament debate saw Omar deliver his famous “I am a Muslim, I am an Indian” speech. The Congress-PDP alliance fell apart in 2008 when the regional party withdrew its support over the Amarnath land row. The NC and the Congress fought the Assembly polls separately in 2008 but came together to form a coalition government. The NC won 28 seats, followed by the PDP at 21 seats and the Congress at 17. Omar became the CM for the first time. The Congress and the NC contested the 2009 Lok Sabha elections in an alliance. The NC became part of the UPA and Farooq was later inducted into the Cabinet. 2010s to present The Congress-NC alliance collapsed after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Omar said the decision to part ways was mutual. The differences between the parties had arisen before the elections after the Congress resisted Omar’s plan to create some 700 new administrative units in J&K. The two parties went into the Lok Sabha elections together but drew a blank in J&K. The parties fought the 2014 Assembly elections separately and came together again in 2017, when the Congress supported Farooq in the Srinagar Lok Sabha bypoll. Farooq won and the NC and the Congress were back together again. The two parties fought the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in a tactical alliance. The Congress contested the two seats in Jammu and had a friendly contest with the NC in Baramulla and Anantnag. It did not field a candidate against Farooq in Srinagar. The two parties had an alliance in the recent Lok Sabha elections too. They contested three seats each with the NC winning two and Congress none.
