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Tariq Bhat
Tariq Bhat

JAMMU AND KASHMIR

NC, Congress join hands again to take on PDP in by-polls

PTI3_14_2017_000133A National Conference president Farooq Abdullah with his son and party working president Omar Abdullah during a party core group meeting in Srinagar | PTI

Srinagar and Anantnag will go to polls on April 9 and 12 respectively

The National Conference and the Congress on Tuesday decided to fight the upcoming by-polls for Srinagar and Anantnag Lok Sabha constituencies jointly against the PDP. The two constituencies are going to polls on April 9 and 12 respectively.

The PDP is fielding Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's brother and award-winning Bollywood cinematographer Mufti Tasaduq Hussain in Anantnag and former Congress leader Nazir Khan in Srinagar.

The chances of NC president Farooq Abdullah contesting from Srinagar and Jammu and Kashmir Congress president G.A. Mir from Anantnag are high, sources said.

The decision to form an alliance against the PDP came after day-long negotiations between the NC and the Congress in Srinagar on Tuesday. With this, the two parties have come together again after their break up before the 2014 assembly polls.

“We held a joint meeting and agreed for a seat-sharing adjustment. It will be a sincere transfer of vote from both sides,'' said Mir. ''Everybody will work hard to ensure the PDP is defeated on both the seats,'' he said, and added that a formal announcement of the alliance would be made on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, the NC had held its core group meeting at Nawa-i-Subh headquarters and authorised president Farooq Abdullah to take a decision about the alliance. 

The NC-Congress alliance lost all the six parliamentary seats in Jammu and Kashmir in 2014 general elections. While NC lost all three seats of Kashmir region—Srinagar, Aanatnag, and Baramula, Congress lost two seats in the Jammu region—Jammu and Udhampure—and the lone Ladakh seat. The PDP and BJP had won three seats each in the polls. 

The NC and Congress are hoping to cash in on the public anger against the PDP due to the separatist uprising of 2016 in which over 90 people were killed and more than 100 were injured, with many of them blinded by pellets in one or both eyes.

In another setback for the PDP, the BJP, its alliance partner in government, has decided to contest the by-polls alone. 

“BJP will contest by-elections on both seats. Party will announce candidates very soon. There will be no pre-poll alliance with the PDP,” said Ashok Kaul, BJP state general secretary (organisation).

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