Assembly elections: Bulk of Congress’s seats falls in Jammu, National Conference’s in Kashmir

SRINAGAR : Despite a seat sharing deal in J&K assembly polls, NC and Congress will engage in “friendly contests” on five seats because of concerns about difficulty in ensuring a smooth vote transfer between the two parties in constituencies where both have strong claims, reports Saleem Pandit.

The three-phase elections from Sept 18 to Oct 1 will be first in a decade and first after ab rogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of the region into two UTs, including Ladakh. Following 2023 delimitation, new J&K assembly will have 47 legislators from Kashmir division and 43 from Jammu.

In 2014, the assembly strength was 87, including four seats from Ladakh. BJP and Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP won 25 seats each in J&K, respectively. NC secured 12 of Kashmir’s 4 6 seats, while Congress took four.

In Jammu’s 37 seats, Congress finished second to BJP with five seats, while NC and PDP won three each.
Congress-NC alliance is banking on BJP’s under performance nationally in recent Lok Sabha elections. BJP retained two LS seats in Jammu but did not contest any seats in Kashmir.
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Although NC vice president Omar Abdullah lost to jailed independent candidate Engineer Rashid in Baramulla, Farooq Abdullah’s party still secured two of the three LS seats in Kashmir.

Congress is expected to field most of its candidates in Jammu, while NC will contest the bulk of the seats in Kashmir valley. This arrangement comes after tough negotiations during LS elections, where Congress was restricted to Jammu while the three Kashmir seats were reserved for NC.

Feeling sidelined after being pushed to Jammu, a BJP stronghold since 2014, Congress faced an uphill battle. However, with renewed optimism following LS polls, the part y is confident about its prospects in Jammu.