Congress holds CEC meeting to finalise candidates for J-K elections
New Delhi, Sept 2 :
With nomination for second phase of the assembly elections beginning today, the Congress party and Awami Itehad Party (AIP) of Engineer Rashid have released the list of candidates to contest the polls.
Congress newly appointed president of Jammu and Kashmir Tariq Hameed Karra will contest the elections as NC-Congress alliance candidate from Srinagar’s Shalteng which is erstwhile Batamaloo. He will be locking horns with PDP’s Qayoom Bhat who is a new entrant to politics compared to Karra.
Karra has been a legislator from Central-Shalteng in 2008 on PDP ticket, however he lost the 2014 assembly elections against National Conference’s Ifran Shah. Karra was among the founding leaders of PDP but he quit the party in 2017 in
J&K: Congress, AIP
protest against the PDP-BJP coalition government following massive agitation in the Valley.
However, Irfan Shah has indicated that he will be contesting as an independent candidate against Karra after NC shared the seat with Congress as per the alliance agreement.
Congress has fielded former legislator Mumtaz Khan from Reasi seat. Khan is the son of famous gujjar leader, late Buland Khan. He had left the party in 2020 and joined Apni Party of businessman Altaf Bukhari. But he quit the party recently to fight the elections on Congress mandate. He was twice elected on the same seat to the JK assembly.
Bhupendra Jamwal from Shri Mata Vaishno Devi, Iftikhar Ahmad from Rajouri (ST), Shabir Ahmad Khan from Thanamandi (ST) and Muhammad Shahnawaz Choudhary from Surankote (ST) are the other four candidates of the Congress which will contest as alliance candidate with National Conference.
Shahnawaz Choudhary will be locked with Akram Choudhary who was formerly a Congress MLA from the same seat in 2014. However he had quit in 2020 and joined Apni Party. During parliament elections he made another jump and joined NC in anticipation of getting a ticket for assembly elections.
However, when the Congress and NC decided to contest in alliance, Akram’s dreams fell flat and he decided to contest as independent. Akram is a cousin of NC MP Mian Altaf.
Congress president Karra said the the Congress Central Election Committee today finalised 23 candidates for assembly seats. He said more names will be announced in coming days.
Meanwhile, jailed MP Engineer Rashid’s rag tag Awani Itehad Party (AIP) released list of six candidates who are contesting the upcoming assembly elections. Among them is former PDP MLC Yasir Reshi who joined the party today. He had joined Peoples Conference of Sajad Lone in 2021. But quit today to contest ad AIP ticket from Sumbal-Sonawari seat of Bandipora district.
The AIP also nominated a former professor Naseer Ahmad Rather from Wagoora-Kreeri seat where he will be locked in contest with Congress-NC candidate Irfan Hafeez Lone. Professor Naseer has quit his job recently to join politics.
Jammu and Kashmir is slated for assembly polls from September 18 when first phase of voting will be held. The second and third phases will be held on September 25 and October 1. The Congress Party held a Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting on Monday at its headquarters in New Delhi to finalise candidates for the remaining seats in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections, following the party’s announcement of nine candidates on August 27.
The meeting was chaired by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge.
Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and General Secretary KC Venugopal were also in attendance.
After the CEC meeting, Congress leader TS Singh Deo said, “The party has already declared nine candidates for the J&K Assembly elections. Today, we discussed 29 assembly seats. The list will be out soon.”
Congress leader Ambika Soni informed that, apart from three seats, the Congress has finalised its candidates for all the constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir.
“Apart from three seats, all the seats were decided today; the second list will be out soon,” said Ambika Soni.
The Congress had announced its first list of nine candidates for the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections in a document signed by All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary KC Venugopal on August 27.
Prominent leader Ghulam Ahmad Mir will contest from Dooru, while Vikar Rasool Wani will run from Banihal. Peerzada Mohd Syed will stand for the Anantnag constituency, and Sheikh Riaz will contest the Doda seat.
The party has fielded Surinder Singh Channi for the Tral seat, Amanullah Mantoo for Devsar, Shaikh Zafarullah for Inderwal, Nadeem Sharief for Bhadarwah, and Pradeep Kumar Bhagat for Doda West.
According to the seat-sharing agreement between the two parties, the National Conference (NC) will contest 51 of the 90 seats, and the Congress will contest 32. The two parties will also contest five seats against each other. They have left one seat each for the CPI(M) and the Panthers Party.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) has also extended its support to the Congress and National Conference alliance in the Jammu and Kashmir polls.
Jammu and Kashmir has 90 assembly constituencies, with 7 seats reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and 9 for Scheduled Tribes (STs).
According to the Election Commission of India, Jammu and Kashmir has 88.06 lakh eligible electors.
In the previous Assembly elections, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) won 28 seats, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured 25, the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (NC) won 15, and the Congress won 12.
The PDP and BJP formed a coalition government led by Mufti Mohammed Sayeed. However, in 2018, the BJP withdrew its support after Mehbooba Mufti took over following Mufti Mohammed Sayeed’s demise.
These upcoming elections will be the first in Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370.
