Congress likely to focus on 20 segments, clears 5 candidates

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 23

The Congress is likely to focus on 20 seats, leaving the bulk for its alliance partner National Conference in the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir elections.

Top Congress sources said these 20 segments are the ones where the Congress has historically had a strong presence. These came up for broad discussions at the first meeting of the party’s Central Election Committee (CEC), which was chaired by Mallikarjun Kharge here on Friday.

Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and party veteran Ambika Soni also attended the meeting which looked at nine seats and cleared the names of five candidates.

Among those approved as candidates are former J&K Congress chief and ex Dooru MLA Ghulam Ahmed Mir; former state unit president Vikar Rasool from Banihal and Pradeep Bhagat from a seat in Jammu division. The other two names could not be confirmed.

The committee also agreed to leave one seat for the CPM in the Valley. The Congress is further learnt to have authorised former minister Salman Khurshid to flesh out seat sharing and alliance strategy with the NC and the CPM, who will contest the three-phase polls together.

Sources said although the Congress was currently looking at 20 segments, the figure could change as seat-sharing talks make progress. In all, the CEC took up nine seats for discussion and approved five.

Meanwhile, the J&K Congress screening committee members, led by chairman Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, would arrive in Srinagar on Saturday and hold a meeting there at 2 pm. Khurshid is also likely to travel to Jammu and Kashmir soon.