This will be after four years that NC and Congress will rejoin hands after bitter a break-up before 2014 Assembly polls
Ending suspense, National Conference (NC) and Congress on Tuesday formally forged an alliance to contest by-elections jointly to take on ruling Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP,) which has fielded Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's brother and award-winning Bollywood cinematographer Mufti Tasaduq Hussain from Anantnag and former Congress leader Nazir Khan from the Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency.
The breakthrough came after a day-long drama and two rounds of negotiations between the NC and Congress in Srinagar to work out modalities for a pre-poll alliance. Under the seat sharing agreement, the NC will contest Srinagar, and Congress will contest Anantnag parliamentary seat. This will be after four years that NC and Congress will rejoin hands after bitter a break-up before 2014 Assembly polls.
"We held a meeting together. Both parties agreed for a seat sharing adjustment. It will be a sincere transfer of vote from both sides. It will be a serious election and everybody will work hard whether it is Congress stronghold or NC bastion. We will ensure that the PDP is defeated in both the seats", GA Mir, J&K state Congress President told DNA
Mir, who is likely to be the candidate for Anantnag parliamentary seat, said formal announcement of the alliance will be made on Wednesday . "We had been in touch with our cadres who were hoping for an alliance. Even the high command told us about the wish of cadres", he said.
Earlier in the day NC held its Core Group meeting at Nawa-i-Subh headquarters and authorized president Farooq Abdullah to take a decision about the alliance. Srinagar and Anantnag parliamentary constituencies will go to polls on April 9 and 12 respectively.
The NC-Congress alliance had lost all the six parliamentary seats of Jammu and Kashmir in 2014. Both parties had contested elections together with the NC contesting three seats in the Valley and Congress contesting two seats in Jammu and a lone seat in Ladakh. The PDP and the BJP, which had contested separately, had won three seats each in the last parliamentary polls.
This time round both parties are trying to cash in on the mounting public anger against the Mehbooba Mufti-led government particularly in south Kashmir to win the polls. South Kashmir was the epicenter of last year's unrest and most of the killings and pellet injuries were reported from this region.
On the other hand, the PDP has nominated Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's younger brother Mufti Tasaduq Hussain from Anantnag and former Congress leader-turned-PDP man Nazir Khan from Srinagar constituency.
A trained cinematographer from the US, Tasaduq is a renowned personality in Bollywood. His debut, Vishal Bhardwaj's Omkara in 2006, got him rave reviews and he won the Zee Cine Award for Best Cinematography and Star Screen Award Best Cinematographer in the same year. Tasaduq teamed up with Bhardwaj again in 2009 for Shahid Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra-starrer Kaminay, which was received well on the Box Office.
"Tasaduq Sahab will contest from Anantnag and Nazir Khan will contest from Srinagar. Campaigning has already been started. We are 100 per cent confident of winning both the seats", Sartaj Madni, Senior Vice-President of PDP told DNA.
Nazir Khan had contested Assembly polls from Beerwa constituency against Omar Abdullah on Congress ticket. He however lost to Omar by less than 1,000 votes in 2014.
What has however added a new dimension to the polls is the BJP's decision to put up candidates for both parliamentary constituencies. Though the BJP has no mass base in the Valley, its decision is likely to create a bad blood given that it is sharing power with the PDP in Jammu and Kashmir.
"BJP will contest by-elections on both seats. The party will announce its 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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