Jammu and Kashmir Congress president Tariq Hamid Karra
SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir Congress president Tariq Hamid Karra on Sunday said his party would not contest the October 24 Rajya Sabha elections to four seats in the Union territory, accusing alliance partner National Conference (NC) of refusing it a “safe seat”.Addressing reporters after a party meeting here, Karra said it was unanimously agreed that Congress would not contest the Rajya Sabha polls.The Congress central leadership had sought one of the two Rajya Sabha seats that are going to polls separately but the NC offered the party one of the two seats, which are going to polls under a common notification, Karra said.“Keeping this in mind, all the participants (at the meeting) were of the opinion that seat four is not safe like seat one or two. It was unanimously decided that we will not put up our candidate for seat number four. We will leave it to our alliance partners to see what they think about that,” Karra said.NC has already named its three candidates for the Rajya Sabha polls.Given the numbers in the Assembly, all three NC candidates appear assured of victory while the fourth candidate of the ruling alliance will need every anti-BJP vote to win.The three MLAs of the PDP, one each from People’s Conference, Awami Ittehad Party and AAP will have to vote for the ruling party candidate to ensure victory on the fourth seat. Karra said a marathon discussion took place about the working of the alliance, the Rajya Sabha polls and the by-elections to two Assembly seats — Budgam and Nagrota. Omar Abdullah vacated Budgam after retaining Ganderbal, and BJP legislator Davinder Singh Rana, who represented Nagrota, died in October 2024.The PCC chief said the party has also written to the chief minister Omar Abdullah explaining the party’s stance on the RS polls. “He advised us to forward the letter to Dr Farooq Abdullah, which we did, but there has been no response so far,” Karra said.A senior Congress leader said the ruling NC is trying to please the BJP by ensuring there is no Congress candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls.However, Nasir Aslam Wani, advisor to the CM, said NC has been in discussions with Congress for many days, claiming that the Congress was in a strong position to seat four. “NC has been fighting BJP all along. If the Congress decides not to contest, we will have to field our own fourth candidate against BJP. It is we who are taking on the BJP.”All four Rajya Sabha seats from J&K have remained vacant since February 2021.The 90-member J&K Assembly currently has 88 sitting members.
