Congress and National Conference have formed an alliance for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections. While Congress will contest on 32 seats, National Conference will field its candidates on 51 seats. Apart from these, there will be friendly fight on five seats, which include Banihal, Doda, Bhaderwah, Nagrota and Sopore. Let us know about the candidates of both the parties, who will face each other on these seats.
Banihal
Congress has given ticket to Vikar Rasool Wani on Banihal seat. He is a political veteran. He had won from here twice on Congress ticket in 2014 and 2008. He served as Jammu and Kashmir Congress President from 2022 to 2024. However, Congress has recently replaced him with Tariq Hameed Karra as the state president of the party.
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The National Conference has fielded Sajjad Shaheen from Banihal. He is currently the district president of Ramban. He contested from Banihal seat twice in 2014 and 2008. On both occasions, he was defeated by Vikar Rasool Wani of the Congress.
Doda
Doda seat falls in Jammu and it is a Muslim majority seat. After delimitation, Doda assembly seat has been divided into two seats, now, Doda West is a separate seat. Doda West is Hindu majority, while Doda seat is Muslim majority. In the 2014 elections, BJP won in undivided Doda.
While the National Conference has given ticket to Khalid Najeeb Suharwardy from Doda seat, the Congress party has fielded Sheikh Riyaz from this seat.
Khalid Najeeb Suharwardy comes from a political family. His father Maulana Ataullah Suharwardy was also a National Conference leader who won this seat in the 1996 assembly elections.
He was elected from Doda assembly seat in a by-election held in 1997 due to the death of his father. He was the Minister of State for Home in Farooq Abdullah’s government from 2001 to 2002. He also worked as MLC from 2009 to 2015. He is being seen as a strong candidate from Doda assembly seat.
Sheikh Riyaz started his political career as a Sarpanch. He was the General Secretary of J&K Congress under the leadership of Vikar Rasool Wani. His wife is a member of the District Development Council.
Bhaderwah
If we look at the demographic structure of this seat in Jammu, it is clear that the population of Hindus and Muslims is almost equal. BJP had won this seat in 2014. A friendly fight will be seen between National Conference and Congress on this seat.
National Conference has given ticket to Sheikh Mehboob Iqbal from Bhaderwah seat. He is a bureaucrat turned politician. He retired from the post of Commissioner Secretary in Jammu Kashmir Government. He has served as Divisional Commissioner of Kashmir Division and Deputy Commissioner of many districts of Jammu Kashmir. He joined PDP after retirement. He contested from Bhaderwah seat on PDP ticket in 2014 assembly elections but lost. Later he joined NC. Now he is contesting from this seat on NC ticket.
Congress has fielded Nadeem Sharif as its candidate. He is a young leader and a relative of Ghulam Nabi Azad. He won the District Development Council elections in 2020. He is currently a member of the Doda District Development Council. His father Mohammad Sharif was a political veteran of the region, who was a two-time MLA from Bhaderwah seat. His father Mohammad Sharif has been a minister in the Jammu and Kashmir government twice during the NC-Congress government led by Farooq Abdullah in 1989 and the PDP-Congress government led by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in 2002. Nadeem’s father Mohammad Sharif is the cousin of Ghulam Nabi Azad.
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Nagrota
Nagrota is a Hindu majority seat in Jammu district. In 2014, Devendra Singh Rana won this seat on a National Conference ticket. Rana is now with the BJP and is the saffron party’s candidate from this seat.
There is going to be a friendly fight between National Conference and Congress on this seat. Voting for this seat will be held in the last phase on October 1. NC and Congress have not yet announced their candidates from this seat.
Sopore
There is a friendly fight between the two parties in Kashmir’s Sopore assembly constituency. Two-time Congress MLA Abdul Rashid Dar will face National Conference’s Irshad Kar, who is the son of North Kashmir’s strong Congress leader Ghulam Rasool Kar. He has also been the Congress president in the 90s. Both leaders have a strong support base in Sopore, which was once a stronghold of terrorism.
This is why both parties were adamant and refused to back down or take even a step back in fielding their candidates for the assembly constituency. Both party leaderships are calling it a friendly fight, but it is hard to see this sentiment having an impact on the contestants who do not consider it as friendly as their parties.
Fierce campaigning has already begun from both sides. Sources have confirmed that this was the only option left for the alliance, as a general alliance on these 5 seats could have led to rebellion in both camps.
Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)