The Congress and Farooq Abdullah's National Conference – members of the opposition INDIA bloc – today announced a seat-sharing formula for the Lok Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Both parties will contest three Lok Sabha seats each.
Congress's decision to agree to the National Conference has thrown Mehbooba Mufti's PDP under the bus even though both parties are part of the INDIA bloc.
Mehbooba Mufti is contesting from Anantnag-Rajouri seat and Congress' support in the seat was seen as crucial for both parties.
“Congress candidates will contest from Udhampur, Jammu and Ladakh Lok Sabha seats and National Conference candidates will contest from Anantnag, Baramulla and Srinagar Lok Sabha seats,” National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said.
Senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid said the PDP is part of the INDIA bloc but “seat adjustment is something different”.
Mr. Khurshid said it is not just a seat-sharing alliance but also an alliance of ideology. He said they made every effort to avoid confusion over the distribution arrangement between the PDP and NC, but given the smaller number of seats they had opted for seat adjustment with one party.
Jammu and Kashmir has five constituencies while Ladakh has one.
The announcement comes a day after Ms Mufti, who recently attended an INDIA block event to protest Arvind Kejriwal's arrest in Delhi, separately announced candidates for three Lok Sabha seats in Kashmir.
Ms Mufti would contest from the Anantnag-Rajouri seat, a prestigious seat that may see a three-way fight between her, Ghulam Nabi Azad of the Democratic Progressive Azad Party and the National Conference candidate. However, Mr Azad told DailyExpertNews that he had not yet done so. decide whether to participate or not.
“My party has announced it (candidacy), but I have not made a final call yet,” he said.
In August 2019, Jammu and Kashmir's special status under Article 370 was revoked and converted into two union territories. No assembly elections have been held in the union territory since then. Last year, the Supreme Court, while hearing a batch of petitions on the issue, said parliamentary elections should be held before September 30.
In March, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar, while announcing the voting schedule for the general elections, said that the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections will take place after the Lok Sabha elections.
The Lok Sabha elections in the Union Territory will be held in the first five phases on April 19 (Udhampur), April 26 (Jammu), May 7 (Anantnag-Rajouri), May 13 (Srinagar) and May 20 (Baramulla).