Seat sharing with Congress final on most seats in J&K: Omar Abdullah

The National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah on Friday said that his party and Congress are still in process of seat sharing arrangement on a few seats as both the parties are adamant on some seats here.

Abdullah said that they have managed to reach a consensus on distribution of most of the seats in the 90 member assembly.

“On some seats we are adamant and on some seats local Congress leaders are adamant.


"I can't give seat wise details but we will update you in a phase wise manner,” said Abdullah, who was accompanying his party leader Sakina Itoo, who filed nomination from DH Pora constituency in southern Kashmir. She had lost the elections in 2014 to the People’s Democratic Party candidate. “We have made our manifesto public. It won't be wrong to say that no other party would provide a better program to run J&K for the next five years,” said Abdullah. The NC leader also stated that the NC-Congress alliance hasn't gone well with the BJP. On the Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s reaction to the alliance in J&K, Abdullah said, “Why do I get the feeling the BJP & its leaders don’t like us very much?”

A senior NC leader said that the party would fight on most of the seats across J&K while Congress will fight on single digit seats in Kashmir and they would focus more on Jammu. Another NC leader said that among other seats Congress is negotiating with the NC to leave Central Shalteng seat for Congress the recently appointed J&K Congress president Tariq Hamid Karra. “We want to make sure that BJP doesn’t have a chance to form the government in any way here,” said a senior Congress leader.

The three-phase elections to the 90-member J&K assembly will be held on September 18, September 25 and October 1. The last assembly elections in J&K were held in 2014 after which BJP and PDP formed a coalition government in the erstwhile state of J&K, which fell in June 2018, when BJP withdrew support from the government.

Meanwhile, BJP leader and J&K Waqf Board chairperson, Darakhshan Andrabi said that the BJP will fight elections on its own and mandates will be declared soon. “Our focus is on development and prosperity. The BJP government and Narendra Modi has ensured peace and prosperity here and we will fight on that plank,” she said.