Congress will fight Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections to form government, says Ambika Soni

SRINAGAR: Leaving its options for an alliance with regional parties open, Congress today said it will contest the forthcoming assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir with the aim of emerging as the single largest party in the state.

"We are going to fight the (assembly) elections to be not only the single largest party but to give a government of Congress party as much as possible," AICC general secretary Ambika Soni told reporters here.

Soni said the Congress party gears up to fight the election to the maximum advantage of the party.

"How many seats we will contest depends on what course of action our leadership (Congress President Sonia Gandhi) will decide," she said.

Soni, accompanied by senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and JKPCC president Saifuddin Soz, held discussions with local Congress leaders including Ministers, MLAs, MLCs, party vice presidents and district presidents to get their views on the strategy that the party needs to adopt in the assembly elections scheduled to be held later this year.

Following the debacle in the Lok Sabha polls where Congress and its coalition partner National Conference drew a blank in the state, pressure is mounting on the leadership of the national party to part ways with the regional party ahead of the assembly polls.

Soni said she along with Azad and Soz will prepare a detailed report based on the interactions they had and submit it to the Congress President Sonia Gandhi for a final decision.

The Congress general secretary said the party would strive to address the issues related to Pakistani refugees living in Jammu, the people from border areas and regularisation of the contractual employees in the state government in the next few months.