Cong, NC to go it alone in J-K Assembly polls later this year

The Congress and the National Conference(NC) have decided to part ways in Jammu and Kashmir and will separately contest the Assembly polls due later this year after being in a coalition for nearly six years but their government will continue till the state goes to polls.

Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ambika Soni and Saifuddin Soz announced today in Jammu that the party will fight the forthcoming Assembly elections alone and will not enter into any pre-poll alliance.

Simultaneously, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who is working president of NC, took to social media to announce that he had informed Congress President Sonia Gandhi 10 days ago that there will be no pre-poll alliance in the state, adding that for Congress to state that it took the decision is "complete distortion of facts" and "incorrect".
 

"I met Mrs Gandhi 10 days ago & thanked her for all her support. I conveyed NC's decision to fight the elections alone," Omar said on Twitter.

Soni, General Secretary AICC and in-charge of J&K Congress, told reporters that "After extensive talks with Congress leaders and workers at all levels, the party has come to the conclusion that we are going to fight the forthcoming Assembly elections on our own strength".

"We will put up candidates or support some of the traditional alliance candidates on all the 87 seats in J&K alone," she said.

Omar said he explained the reasons to the Congress president for not entering into a pre-poll alliance "but also told her I wouldn't be making a public announcement because I didn't want it to look opportunistic.

"For it to be spun now as a Cong decision is wrong & a complete distortion of the facts, not surprising but incorrect nonetheless," he added.

Soni, who was flanked by Azad and JKPCC chief Soz, said, "Most of the wokers and leaders of Congress wanted us to go alone in elections".

The votes in Lok Sabha elections were not transferred to each other resulting in the debacle, she said, adding, "There was not much of help that came from our alliance partner in previous elections".