The Congress party released its first list of candidates on Tuesday for the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly elections. The party announced candidates for nine seats including Anantnag, Doda, and Banihal.
Surinder Singh Channi will contest the polls from Tral, Amanullah Mantoo from Devsar, Ghulam Ahmad Mir from Dooru, and Peerzada Mohd Syed from Anantnag.
Sheikh Zafarullh will enter the poll fray from Inderwal, Nadeem Sharief from Bhadarwah, Sheikh Riyaz from Doda, Pradeep Kumar Bhagat from Doda West, and Vikar Rasool Wani from Banihal.
The Central Election Committee has selected the following persons as Congress candidates for the ensuing elections to the Legislative Assembly of Jammu & Kashmir. pic.twitter.com/wo1bkdojhv
— Congress (@INCIndia) August 26, 2024
The announcement of the candidates came after Congress and the National Conference reached a consensus on seat-sharing in the state after a brief impasse.
The Congress high command had rushed two of its senior leaders, KC Venugopal and Salman Khurshid to Srinagar on Monday to iron out differences on seat-sharing with NC. The move came after National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said last week that the decision was made on most of the seats but were “stuck” on some of them.
On Monday, the two allies of the INDIA bloc announced that they will contest the polls together on 85 of out 90 seats while there will be a friendly competition on 5 of them.
The Congress will field candidates on 32 out of the 85 seats while the National Conference will fight on 51 seats and there will be a friendly contest on 5 seats.
The alliance have also given one seat to Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Panthers Party.
Tuesday is the last day to file nominations for the first phase of polling which will be held on September 18 while the second and third phase polling will take place on September 25 and October 1. Votes will be counted on October 4.
