The National Conference-Congress alliance stitched only four days ago amidst cordial relations is showing signs of strain in the run-up to the final date of nominations for the first round of polling on August 27.
Despite holding several rounds of talks the alliance partners are yet to finalise the seat-sharing formula.
The trust deficit between the allies and the absence of consensus on some of the seats going to polls in the first round of polling on September 18, is turning out to be a major roadblock.
Inside reports suggested some of the senior National Conference leaders from the Jammu region expressed their discomfiture over offering seats to the Congress party without making a genuine assessment of the ground realities.
Since National Conference leaders threatened to contest the elections as an independent candidate if the decision was not reversed the party’s high command decided to put on hold the final list of candidates.
Following these reports, the National Conference leaders went into a huddle and also reached out to the Congress leaders to put on hold their final list as well.
Efforts were on to pacify the angry leaders. At the same time, the local unit of the Congress party has already submitted a list of 90 candidates for approval to the Election Screening Committee of the party. The Congress leaders took this decision to avoid further flare-ups during negotiations.
“We have submitted a list of the party candidates to the election screening committee of the party at the national level after we failed to iron out differences over some of the crucial seats in the erstwhile district of Doda in Jammu province and south Kashmir seats from where a senior Congress leader was keen on contesting,” a senior Congress leader told The Pioneer.
“The top brass of both parties may have decided to ally but resistance shown by the foot soldiers over the seat-sharing formula is emerging as the biggest roadblock”, the Congress leader said. A team of the Central party leaders was also camping in the valley to hold a fresh round of talks with their counterparts in the National Conference on Monday.
The last date for filing the nomination papers for the first round of polling is August 27.
On the other hand, the Central Election Committee of the Bharatiya Janta Party is also meeting in New Delhi on Sunday to finalize the list of party candidates. The core group of the party held deliberations at the residence of JP Nadda on Friday where they had shortlisted the names of the party candidates for final selection during the CEC meeting in New Delhi on Sunday.
Meanwhile, National Conference Vice President Omar Abdullah on Sunday asked the Mehbooba Mufti-led party to not field candidates against NC-Congress nominees for the betterment of Jammu and Kashmir as their agenda is the same.
Addressing a meeting of the party workers in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district, Omar Abdullah said the NC has prepared an extensive manifesto for the assembly polls which has been copied by other parties.
“We have not left out anything in the manifesto. Today, everyone has copied our manifesto. They should have kept some differences,” he said, referring to the PDP’s manifesto which was released by Mehbooba on Saturday.
“They (PDP) said if the NC-Congress alliance accepts their agenda, they will not put up candidates. You have put all our agenda in your manifesto. You have already accepted our agenda and now there is not much of a difference between your agenda and our agenda. Then do not field candidates and come, we will build a better tomorrow for Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.
