Cong, NC begin talks for alliance, PDP out of sight

Arjun Sharma

Jammu, August 6

With the possibility that the Assembly elections will be held here in the coming months, the Congress and the National Conference (NC) have started talks to form a pre-poll alliance. However, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has so far not shown any interest in the alliance in the wake of a rift between NC vice-president Omar Abdullah and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti ahead of the Lok Sabha elections a few months ago.

Abdullah and Mufti had criticised each other in separate press conferences after the former did not let PDP, a part of INDIA alliance, to contest from the Anantnag seat under the alliance. Mehboobna contested from the seat, but was defeated by NC candidate Mian Altaf.

A senior leader of the J&K Congress told The Tribune that talks for an alliance have begun between NC and Congress, but these were in initial stage.

“At present, we are discussing the number of seats to will be shared between the two parties. The NC is asking for 12-15 seats in Jammu region which is quite a lot, given the performance of the Congress in LS poll where the winning margin of two BJP candidates decreased considerably,” the Congress leader said. He said if the talks failed to mature, the “Congress will not shy away from contesting alone”.

It has also been learnt that the PDP is likely to contest the Assembly poll on its own without entering into any alliance.

A party leader based in Poonch said as Mehbooba Mufti was not allowed to contest the Lok Sabha poll under the INDIA alliance from Anantnah, there was little scope that there would be an alliance.

The NC, which is a Valley-based party, has influence in pockets of Jammu region. The NC and Congress have been into an alliance in earlier governments in J&K. There are a total of 90 Assembly segments in J&K. Of this, 43 are located in Jammu division.