The Congress hasn’t announced its candidates for the three Lok Sabha seats the party will be contesting in Jammu and Kashmir as per a seat-sharing agreement with the National Conference.
The NC will be contesting in all the three Parliamentary seats in the Valley, while the Congress will be in the fray for two seats in Jammu and one in Ladakh. The NC has announced its three nominees. The Congress leaders, who said the party might announce all the candidates this week, said Madan Lal Sharma would be fielded again in the Jammu-Poonch seat.
“Sharma has got a good foothold in his constituency and has been in touch with the people,” said a party leader.
Sources, however, said the Congress wasn’t interested in giving the Udhampur-Doda ticket to sitting MP Lal Singh. And state Congress vice-president Abdul Gani Vakil said the Pradesh Congress Committee had recommended Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi for the seat.
“Being a senior party leader, Azad can win the seat easily and defeat the BJP candidate by a big margin,” he said.
For the Ladakh seat, the Congress is considering the names of Rigzin Spalbar, Tsering Sampel, Asghar Karbalai and Ghulam Raza.