NC confirms alliance with Congress in J&K

Srinagar: Former J&K Chief Minister and president of National Conference (NC) Dr Farooq Abdullah said on Thursday that a pre-poll alliance between the Congress and the NC has been finalised and paperwork was being finalised.

“Alliance on all 90 Assembly seats between the two parties has been formed. Paperwork to be finalised by tonight. Congress, NC and CPI(M) are together. We will work together and fight the elections. We are hopeful that statehood will be returned. No doors are closed for anyone,” said Dr Abdullah.

He told reporters that an alliance has been made and the parties will issue mandates to their candidates in a phased manner. Earlier, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge called on Dr Farooq Abdullah at his high-security Gupkar Road residence here.

Former chief minister and NC vice president Omar Abdullah was also present during the meeting at his father’s residence. After the meeting, Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and K.C. Venugopal met the Congress leaders and workers at a local hotel in Srinagar. Addressing the Congress workers, Rahul Gandhi said, “You are not workers, you are family. As soon as we got to know that elections were going to be held, we first decided to come here to Jammu and Kashmir because we wanted to give a message to the people that for us the representation of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and their statehood is the most important thing.”

“In the history of India, after Independence, many union territories have been converted into states, but there is only one example when statehood was taken away and a union territory was created,” Gandhi said.