J-K Assembly Polls: NC, Congress ‘seal’ alliance, yet some hurdles in seat-sharing remain. Details here

National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Thursday said the pre-poll alliance with the Congress party is definite for winning all 90 seats in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) is also expected to join this alliance.

Abdullah’s comments came after he and his son, Omar Abdullah, met with Congress leaders. Kharge Mallikarjun and Rahul Gandhi in Srinagar. Earlier in the day, Gandhi, Addressing party workers in Srinagar, he said that an alliance would be formed while maintaining the “respect of Congress workers”.

He Assembly elections in three phases In Jammu and Kashmir, the first round of voting for all 24 seats will begin on September 18. The other two rounds are scheduled for September 25 and October 1. Votes will be counted on October 4.

Farooq Abdullah said on Thursday that the alliance would be finalised by the evening. However, a formula for seat-sharing between the two parties has not been formally announced.

Obstacles on the road to a seat-sharing pact

As things stand, the two parties are working to resolve some hurdles in some seats before finalizing any formula. The NC has a strong presence in Kashmir ValleyWhile Congress is a bigger player in Jammu, where Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is also a major player.

“We have reached a consensus on most of the seats. We are adamant on some seats and the regional Congress leaders are adamant on some seats. Today we will debate again and try to bring the remaining seats within the alliance limit and announce our candidates,” Omar Abdullah he told news agency ANI on Friday.

The Congress party wants seats from the Kashmir valley, from where it has fielded candidates in previous elections. The National Conference, on the other hand, is not ready to give up some of these seats as it believes it has been working on the ground in these seats for a long time, according to a report by the Indian Express.

Partners of the INDIA block

Since the first assembly elections were held in Jammu and Kashmir in 1951, the National Conference (NC) and Congress were the dominant parties in the former state until 2002, when Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) emerged as a major political player for the first time.

The Congress and the NC are part of the opposition bloc INDIA at the national level. The two parties competed Lok Sabha Elections 2024 Together. NC County fielded three candidates in the Valley seats, and Congress fielded two candidates in Jammu as part of a pre-poll deal. NC won two seats in the Valley, but Congress failed to win any seats in the 2024 general elections.

The CN won the 2008 Assembly elections, with 28 seats, and formed a coalition government with the Congresswhich had won 17 seats in the 87-member House that then included Ladakh. In 2019, Ladakh became an independent Union Territory. The number of seats in Jammu and Kashmir was raised to 90 after delimitation in 2022.

Seats in Srinagar

The Congress wants to contest at least eight seats in Srinagar district, including seats like Hazratbal, which is considered a Congress stronghold. The party has already selected a candidate from here.

The party led by Farooq Abdullah is also not willing to cede some seats in Pulwama and Anantnag districts of the Kashmir Valley.

The Dooru seat in Anantnag, for example, was an NC stronghold between 1962 and 1996. In the 2002 and 2008 assembly elections, the seat was won by Ghulam Ahmad Mir, Former state Congress chief Syed Farooq Andrabi won the seat in the 2014 elections.

North Carolina is willing to let Congress have the upper hand in the… Jammu Regionwhere the grand party has a better presence than in the Kashmir Valley, where the NC believes it is a major player.

The two parties are also discussing a “friendly” fight for seats where agreement has not yet been reached.