Congress-NC announce seat-sharing pact for J-K, Ladakh

SRINAGAR — The political parties of Congress and National Conference on Friday announced a seat-sharing pact for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh Union Territories.

Addressing a press conference, as per the news agency KNO, National Conference president Omar Abdullah revealed the contours of the seat-sharing pact between the two parties.

“I am happy to formally announce that National Conference and Congress will contest the six seats of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh together,” Omar said.

Omar, who was flanked by senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid, said NC and Congress will contest three seats each in the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir.

“So far we have announced candidates for three seats. We have announced the candidature of Lal Singh for Udhampur, Raman Bhalla for Jammu and Mian Altaf from Anantnag,” he said, adding that names of candidates for three seats will be announced soon.

As per the seat-sharing deal, Congress will contest two seats of Jammu and a lone seat of Ladakh, while NC will field its candidates on three seats in the Kashmir Valley.

On the occasion, Salman Khurshid said that the Peoples Democratic Party is still part of the INDIA alliance.

“PDP is in our alliance. Seat sharing is one part of the alliance and the alliance is a different issue. Since J&K is small in area, there is not much scope for seat sharing despite our best efforts,” he said.