* Tie-up with Cong final on all 90 seats: Farooq
* Poll alliance not at cost of party soldiers’ interests: Rahul
Fayaz Bukhari /
Gopal Sharma
SRINAGAR/JAMMU, Aug 22: In a significant political development ahead of Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, National Conference and Congress Party forged a broader alliance on all the 90 Assembly seats.
Click here to watch video
National Conference president Farooq Abdullah announced that an alliance with the Congress was finalised for all 90 Assembly seats in J&K.
Follow The Daily Excelsior Channel On WhatsApp
The announcement follows a meeting between Abdullahs, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge at the National Conference chief’s residence.
“We had a good meeting in a cordial atmosphere. The alliance is on track and God willing, it will function smoothly. We will sign the agreement by evening, covering all 90 seats,” Farooq told media-persons after the meeting.
The NC president further said: “CPI(M)’s Mohd Yousuf Tarigami is also with us. I hope our people are with us too and that we win with a huge majority to improve the lives of the people.”
Asked about Gandhi’s assurance earlier in the day that it was the priority of the Congress and the INDIA Bloc to restore Statehood to J&K, Abdullah hoped that full Statehood with all powers would be restored.
“Statehood is very important for all of us. This has been promised to us. This State has witnessed bad days and we hope it will be restored with its full powers. For that, we stand together with the INDIA Bloc,” he said.
Earlier, Rahul while addressing workers at a local hotel at Srinagar declared that the party is going for an alliance with the NC.
“Alliance will take place. But there won’t be an alliance at the cost of Congress workers’ and leaders’ interest. You should remain assured that there will be no compromise on the interests and respect of party workers and leaders,” he said.
In Jammu, Rahul Gandhi told his party workers that pre-poll alliance with the National Conference for the forthcoming Assembly elections in J&K was in progress, but the interests and aspirations of the party workers and leaders will be taken care of. They will not be compromised.
Meanwhile, senior CPI(M) leader M Y Tarigami has welcomed the announcement of NC-Cong pre-poll alliance for the assembly elections in J&K, saying it is a much needed move.
“We welcome the announcement by Farooq Abdullah regarding the alliance of NC-Congress and the CPI (M) for the polls,” Tarigami said.
He said the pre-poll alliance is a welcome development, and was much needed keeping in view the present situation and the challenges faced by the people of J-K since the 2019 abrogation of Article 370 and the downgrading and division of the erstwhile State into two Union Territories.
Meanwhile, the alliance meeting was held this evening at a local hotel in which leaders from both the parties were present. A senior leader said that the meeting decided that seat sharing arrangement will be released for the first phase by tomorrow and Congress is likely to get 3-4 seats and CPI (M) one seat from South Kashmir which is voting on September 18 and rest will go to the NC.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
