Congress, NC leaders to meet in Srinagar to finalize seat-sharing deal

SRINAGAR — The Congress leadership is set to hold deliberations with the National Conference on Monday to iron out differences over seat-sharing for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly polls.

Congress general secretary organisation, K C Venugopal will hold talks with NC president Farooq Abdullah and vice president Omar Abdullah at their residence here, leaders in both parties said.

They said the meeting was necessitated after “some differences” cropped up in seat-sharing arrangement during the talks between the local leadership of the parties. The leaders said both the parties have agreed over the seat-sharing formula to a large extent.

“The central leaders of Congress will meet our leadership to talk about the alliance. Some clarification is needed on some issues, and this will be done today,” NC provincial president, Kashmir, Nasir Aslam Wani told reporters outside the residence of the Abdullahs.

“Two parties have to contest the election together, there are many issues. We have to keep in mind the party cadre on the ground, we also have to consider the strength of the parties in specific seats,” he added.

Wani, however, said the seat-sharing issues will not have any impact on the alliance. “Had we known the elections would be conducted, we would have sorted these things beforehand,” the NC leader said.

Pertinently, polls to the 90-member J-K Assembly will be held in three phases on September 18, September 25 and October 1, while results will be announced on October 4.