NC, Congress join hands for bypolls

Farooq to contest from Srinagar, Mir from Anantnag

NL Correspondent

SRINAGAR: The National Conference and Congress will be fighting the upcoming bypolls of Srinagar and Anantnag Parliamentary elections jointly.

This was announced by leaders of the National Conference and the Congress in a joint press conference in Srinagar.

National Conference Working President, Omar Abdullah said, “NC President, Farooq Abdullah will contest from Srinagar while Congress JK chief G A Mir will be allies candidate for Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency.”

The PDP has chosen J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti's brother Mufti Tasaduq Hussain to contest Anantnag and former Congress leader Nazir Khan from the Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency.

Omar, the former chief minister, said both parties had done an “internal exercise” and made a strategy to ensure “win” on both seats.

“Both the parties had exhaustive deliberations then reached on this decision to fight jointly and defeat the opponent candidates. It will be a combine fight for both the parties,” Omar said.

Omar said the NC workers, leaders and well wishers will ensure a landslide victory for Congress candidate G A Mir. Similarly, the NC leader said, Mir has assured him that Congress will support Farooq Abdullah for Srinagar Parliamentary bypolls seat and will “win” by a huge margin.

The National Conference Working President said it was not a “compulsion” for both parties to fight jointly but is part of a strategy to ensure “landslide victory” on both seats. “We took this decision so that anti-establishment vote is not divided.”

“We are not 100 percent confident to win both the seats but we are hopeful for a success. Our (NC-Congress) strategy could not have been better rather than fighting together,” the former chief minister said. He was flanked by senior NC leaders, Ali Mohammad Sagar, Nasir Aslam Wani, Mubarak Gul, Sakina Yatoo and Junaid Mattoo. Senior Congress leaders, G A Mir, Taj Mohiuddin and Mohammad Amin Bhat were also present.

Srinagar constituency will go to polls on April 9, polling in Anantnag seat will be held on April 12. Anantnag seat fell vacant in June last after Mehbooba Mufti won the assembly bypolls, as required by law, to continue as the Chief Minister. The Srinagar Lok Sabha seat was vacated by former PDP leader Tariq Hamid Karra, who had resigned last year in September in protest against alleged “brutalities” on Kashmir protesters.

Further, Omar said both the allies had many faces in south and central Kashmir who could have been field from these two Parliamentary constituencies. “The NC has many leaders like Sakina Yatoo who could have been fielded if we had not decided to fight jointly. Similarly, the Congress has Tariq Hamid Karra that the party could have fielded from Srinagar seat.”

Referring to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls when the NC-Congress alliance lost all the six parliamentary seats of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar said, “Both the NC and the Congress could not transform their voters to each other's candidates that time. But we have to think about future how to ensure victory for our candidates.”

The NC leader said the allies will fight elections on the issues that the two parties have been raising for the last two years. “We will fight our elections to seek political dialogue, peaceful environment has to be created, developmental activities have to be started, forces excesses have to be stopped and avenues have to be created for unemployed youth of the state.”

Omar asked the BJP ministers should resign if the ruling parties do not contest the elections jointly. “The PDP, BJP are allies in government. How can they contest separately and field candidates against each other. They can't be-fool the people of the state by such game plans,” he said.

On the occasion, Congress candidate for south Kashmir, G A Mir said both the parties received “multi layer feedback” from the party workers and the common people then reached on decision to fight jointly. “We have many issues on which people could judge the Congress and NC candidates. We are hopeful that people will vote in large numbers as the NC and the Congress have given them better choice of candidates.”