Srinagar– The National Conference (NC) on Tuesday said the party will contest all the three Lok Sabha constituencies in the Kashmir valley on its own, even as talks were on with the Congress to decide on the three seats of Jammu and Ladakh regions.
Both the parties are members of the opposition INDIA bloc.
The NC’s announcement came after a marathon meeting of its parliamentary committee at the party headquarters here which was chaired by party president Farooq Abdullah.
“The National Conference will contest these three seats from the valley on its own,” NC’s provincial president for Kashmir, Nasir Aslam Wani, told reporters after the meeting.
Abdullah-led party, however, said that discussions were on with the Congress for seat-sharing on two seats in Jammu and one in Ladakh.
“For the rest three seats, including Ladakh, talks with the Congress are on,” Wani said.
The announcement put to rest the speculations that India alliance partners, including Mehbooba Mufti-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), would enter into a seat-sharing arrangement in Jammu and Kashmir with the PDP contesting from Anantnag-Rajouri seat and the Congress fielding its candidates from two seats in Jammu region and one in Ladakh.
The NC’s announcement effectively left the PDP out of the alliance in the Union territory.
A PDP leader, who did not wish to be identified, said the NC move was akin to “backstabbing”.
“They have dashed the hopes of the people of Kashmir who wanted a collective fight to be put up. We were rising above party politics for a larger cause, for the interest of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. This is against the public mood,” he said.
The PDP leader while referring to the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), an alliance of few mainstream political parties seeking the restoration of the special status of J-K which was revoked by the Centre in 2019, said if the NC had to take a decision unilaterally then what was the need for a consultative mechanism.
“What was the need for a consultative mechanism then? If they had asked us for all the seats, we could have said yes and left the seats for the greater good,” he said.
The leader added that his party would take a call on fielding candidates on the three valley seats in a few days.
Meanwhile, a NC leader said that the meeting of the party’s parliamentary committee did not finalise the candidates for the polls.
“The candidates were not finalised. It has been decided that another meeting will take place in the next two weeks and a call will be taken then,” the leader said.
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