Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, July 14: In a major political development which indicated that ruling coalition partners—National Conference and Congress were set to part ways, the NC has decided to announce candidates for all 87 Assembly seats in the State with first list likely to be made public anytime this week.
Sources within the ruling party told the Excelsior that the National Conference has already obtained a panel of three candidates for each Assembly constituency from the district and block units of the party for all 87 seats, which would be put before Parliamentary Board of the party, which could meet at Nawa-i-Subh complex, the headquarters of National Conference in Srinagar, the winter capital of the State, anytime after arrival of NC president Dr Farooq Abdullah in Srinagar tomorrow.
“We have taken the panel of three candidates for every Assembly segment from our block and district units. The panel would be put before the Parliamentary Board and the seats on which consensus emerged would be announced within this week,’’ sources said, adding that in any case the National Conference high command would announce first list of the candidates this week.
They said as soon as Farooq Abdullah, former Union Minister and party president reached Srinagar, most likely tomorrow, the NC will call its Parliamentary Board meeting and make announcement of candidates.
The NC high command has already asked its Parliamentary Board members and other senior leaders to stay in Srinagar. The Parliamentary Board members from Jammu and Ladakh regions have also been asked to reach Srinagar.
Sources said the party’s senior leaders have obtained panel of three candidates for every Assembly segment from district and block units of the party, which would be put before the Parliamentary Board for the final choice.
They added that the National Conference has, in principle, decided to contest all 87 Assembly seats though it has received feelers from some Congress Ministers (both from Jammu and Kashmir regions) to wait for announcement of all candidates as they wanted to persuade their leadership for pre-poll alliance with the National Conference.
“However, we have decided to name candidates for all 87 Assembly seats in a phased manner. We will be releasing first list of the candidates this week,’’ they said.
The major opposition party, the PDP has already announced about 60 candidates for the Assembly elections and party sources said it could announce remaining candidates in the next few days to give enough time to the candidates to prepare themselves for the elections, which were due to be held in November-December this year.
National Conference president and former Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah had already given enough indications that the party could field some new faces in the elections in the wake of drubbing it received in Parliament elections in which NC lost all three Lok Sabha seats in the Kashmir Valley, which it contested in alliance with the Congress.
The Congress, the BJP and the Nationalist Panthers Party, three other major players apart from Joint Front floated by MY Tarigami-Hakim Mohammad Yaseen combine were yet to finalize their candidates for the Assembly elections.
The Congress and the BJP haven’t undertaken any exercise so far to finalize their candidates for the Assembly elections.
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