Jammu: The Regional National Conference (NC) and the Congress on Wednesday decided to forge an alliance for the Lok Sabha election in J&K. Interestingly, as per the terms of alliance announced by the NC president, Dr Farooq Abdullah and Congress’ Rajya Sabha MP Ghulam Nabi Azad, the two parties will engage in a “friendly contest” in three of the state’s six Lok Sabha seats.
The Congress will not field any candidate against Dr Abdullah, who will seek re-election from the Srinagar seat. In return, the NC will not field any candidates in the Jammu and Udhampur LS seats in the Jammu division against the Congress. In the remaining three seats of Anantnag, Baramulla and Ladakh, it is going to be an electoral fight between the NC and the Congress though the leaders of the two parties have called it a “friendly contest”.
There is little doubt the voter turnout in the three LS seats of Anantnag, Srinagar and Baramulla is going to be low. The last bypoll was won by Dr Abdullah from Srinagar in 2017 with just a seven per cent voter turnout. The seat had fallen vacant after Tariq Hameed Karra resigned from both the LS and the PDP. Karra had won the seat for the PDP in 2014.
What if the NC and the Congress voters in Anantnag and Baramulla cast their votes according to party loyalties and thereby pass on the advantage to rivals belonging to other parties like the PDP, the Peoples Conference (PC) headed by Sajad Gani Lone and the J&K People’s movement headed by former IAS officer Shah Faesal? The NC has decided to field Justice (retd) Hasnain Masoodi from Anantnag. The Congress wanted to field its state president GA Mir.
