Jammu and Kashmir: National Conference to contest all 4 Rajya Sabha seats; ally Congress wants one

File photo: J&K CM Omar Abdullah

SRINAGAR: Governing National Conference (NC) has decided to contest all four Rajya Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir, and is not in a mood to concede even one seat to ally Congress.BJP, too, announced to contest all seats, which NC described as “posturing”, and said the party would face defeat like it did in assembly polls.J&K Congress president Tariq Hamid Karra told TOI that the party’s central leadership would take a call on Rajya Sabha elections in J&K, but the UT unit had conveyed to it that the party should be allotted at least one seat.Karra said though Congress has chosen not to join Omar Abdullah’s government till J&K’s statehood is restored, the Rajya Sabha polls are different. “In J&K govt, we gave up ministerial positions for the larger goal of statehood, but here we are talking about representation in the Upper House of Parliament at a time when our constitutional rights are still not guaranteed,” he said.NC, however, is in no mood to grant Congress’s demand. Party spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq told TOI the party would contest all seats and win comfortably. He added that BJP would “lose comfortably” if they entered the fray.On September 24, the ECI announced that polling for the four Rajya Sabha seats in J&K would take place on October 24. All four seats have been vacant since 2021. That year, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Nazir Ahmed Laway had completed their terms on Feb 15, and Fayaz Ahmed Mir and Shamsheer Singh Manhas on Feb 10. CM Omar has been regularly voicing concern over the “undue delay” in filling the RS vacancies.The current strength of the 90-member J&K Assembly is 88, with NC holding 41 seats and enjoying the support of five of seven independents. Congress has six MLAs and CPM has one, giving the NC-Congress alliance the backing of 53 members. Opposition BJP has 28 seats, while PDP has three, and PC and AAP have one each. Two seats are vacant as Omar, Omar vacated Budgam, choosing to retain Ganderbal, while BJP legislator Davinder Singh Rana, who represented Nagrota, passed away.