Congress to fight all seats in Jammu and Kashmir polls: Ambika Soni

Asserting that Congress will fight all the 87 seats in Jammu and Kashmir, AICC general secretary Ambika Soni on Wednesday said Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and party vice president Rahul Gandhi will be star campaigners for the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.

"We are fighting all the seats again hoping to form the government in the state," Soni said. She further said that Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh will be star campaigners during the campaigning of the five-phased elections in the state.

"We have requested Sonia, Rahul and Dr Singh in this regard on the sidelines of a meeting held on Wednesday," she said.

"Normally we will provide a list of 40 star campaigners to the Election Commission," Soni said.

Replying to the question about releasing the list of the probable candidates for the first phase of elections, she said that it will be released by this evening. On the issue of release of the party manifesto, she said draft of the manifesto has been prepared and submitted to the top party leadership in this directions.

After the consultation with state Congress chief, manifesto will be released in three different places, including Srinagar and Ladakh, Soni said. Regarding the poll plank, she said Congress will go to the people with their report card on development, accountability, governance of our government which was in power since 2002 with coalition partners.

The manifesto and the poll campaign would be based on achievements of our government which remained in power during the coalition governments of 2002 and 2008, she said. Polling will take place on November 25, December 2, 9, 14 and 20 in the state.