J&K polls: Congress, National Conference to hold talks over seat sharing

New Delhi [India], August 26 (ANI): The National Conference and Congress are scheduled to hold a meeting on Monday to iron out differences over seat sharing for the upcoming Assembly elections in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. August 27 is the last day for filing nominations for the first phase of the assembly election.

Congress rushed KC Venugopal and senior leader Salman Khurshid to work on the details of the seat sharing. The duo are reported to have left for Srinagar on Monday. According to top Congress sources, the party is demanding to contest at least 8 seats out of the 24 seats in the first phase.

The sources further added that the NC is offering 35 seats to the Congress against its demand of 37, out of a total of 90 seats. It is learnt that the NC is talking about friendly contests on some seats for which the Congress is not ready.

The leaders of both parties are in touch, but if the talks do not mature, Congress is mulling to go solo in the elections. The picture of the alliance will be clear by August 26 afternoon, as per sources.

National Conference leader Nasir Aslam said that everything will be clear by August 26 evening.

“I will give an update after the meeting. Some senior Congress colleagues are coming to meet with Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and other leaders. There was a need for clarification over some matters. It would be better to clarify sitting across the table,” Aslam told ANI.

“Two- three people are coming. Everything will be clear by this evening, including the list of candidates,” he told ANI.

The two parties, the National Conference and Congress have allied for the polls days ahead of the polls.

The last date for filing the nomination papers is August 27.

Meanwhile, the Bhartiya Janata Party on Monday announced the first list of 15 candidates for the upcoming assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

BJP has fielded Syed Showkat Andrabi from Pampore, Arshad Bhat from Rajpora, Javed Qari from Shopian, Mohd. Rafiq Wani from Anantnag West, Syed Wazahat from Anantnag, Sofi Yousuf from Bijbehar, Veer Saraf from Shangus-Ananatnag East, Tariq Keen from Inderwal, Shagun Parihar from Kishtwar, Sunil Sharma from Padder-Naseni, Daleep Singh Parihar from Bhadarwah, Gajay Rana from doda, Shakti Parihar from Doda, Rakesh Thakur from Ramban and Salim Bhat from Banihal.

Polling in Jammu and Kashmir will be conducted in three phases on September 18, 25, and October 1, according to the Election Commission of India. The counting of votes will take place on October 4.

There are a total number of 90 assembly constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir, out of which 7 seats are reserved for SCs and 9 seats are reserved for STs. According to the Election Commission of India, Jammu and Kashmir has 88.06 lakh eligible electors.

In the last Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, the PDP won 28 votes, the Bharatiya Janata Party won 25 votes, the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference won 15 votes and the Congress won 12 votes.

The PDP and BJP formed a coalition Government led by Mufti Mohammed Sayeed. However, in 2018, the BJP withdrew its support from the alliance after Mehbooba Mufti took over following Mufti Mohammed Sayeed’s demise.

These are the first assembly elections to be held in Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370. (ANI)