Congress, National Conference announce seat-sharing plan for J&K, Ladakh

Both parties will compete for three Lok Sabha seats.

The Congress Party and Farooq Abdullah National Conference – members of India’s opposition bloc – today announced the seat allocation package for the Lok Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Both parties will compete for three Lok Sabha seats each.

The Congress party’s decision to participate in the national convention has put the People’s Democratic Party led by Mehbooba Mufti in a difficult position, even though both parties are part of the Indian camp.

Mehbooba Mufti is contesting from the Anantnag-Rajouri seat, where Congress support is seen as crucial for both parties.

National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said: “Congress candidates will contest from Udhampur, Jammu and Ladakh Lok Sabha seats, while National Congress candidates will contest from Anantnag, Baramul to contest for Lok Sabha seats in Srinagar.”

Senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid said that while the People’s Democratic Party is part of the Indian camp, “seat reshuffling is another matter”.

Mr. Khurshid said this was not just a seat-sharing alliance but also an ideological one. He said they made every effort to avoid any confusion in the sharing arrangement between the People’s Democratic Party and the National Committee, but given the low number of seats, they made seat adjustments with one party.

There are five constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir and one in Ladakh.

The news comes a day after Ms Mufti recently attended an India Group event to protest against the arrest of Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi and announced candidates for three Lok Sabha seats in Kashmir.

Ms Mufti will contest from Anantnag-Rajouri seat, a prestigious seat, along with the Democratic Progressive Party’s Ghulam Nabi Azad and the National Conference candidate There may be a three-party competition among them. However, Mr Azad told New Delhi TV he was yet to decide whether he would contest.

“My party has announced (candidates) but I haven’t made a final decision yet,” he said.

In August 2019, Jammu and Kashmir’s special status under Article 370 was abrogated and converted into two Union Territories. Since then, no parliamentary elections have been held in the Union Territory. Last year, the Supreme Court said that assembly elections must be held by September 30 after hearing a series of petitions on the subject.

In March, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar, while announcing the general election polling schedule, said that the Jammu and Kashmir assembly polls would be held after the Lok Sabha elections.

The Lok Sabha polls in the Union Territories will be held in the first five phases, namely April 19 (Udhampur), April 26 (Jammu), and May 7 (Anantnag-Rajuri) , May 13 (Srinagar) and May 20 (Baramulla).