SRINAGAR : After the hardtalk of Abdullahs, the INDIA bloc says the alliance parties are ready to give two of the three seats won by National Conference in last Lok Sabha polls but opine that a workable solution has to be found for the Anantnag-Rajouri seat, which has witnessed change in geography and constituencies after the delimitation exercise, besides two other parliamentary seats in Jammu being held by BJP.
A senior Congress leader said parleys are going on between the INDIA alliance parties in J&K including NC, PDP and Congress on seat sharing arrangement for the five LS seats in J&K.
The NC, he said, is very much part of the INDIA alliance as was asserted by former J&K Chief Minister and NC vice president Omar Abdullah yesterday.
The NC president Farooq Abdullah yesterday said the party would go it alone in the LS while his son Omar Abdullah a few hours later said they are very much part of the INDIA Alliance. Omar said the three LS seats won by NC in 2019 are INDIA alliance seats and therefore the seats that are to be discussed for seat sharing pact are the two seats held by BJP.
In the 2019 LS polls, NC won three seats from Valley and BJP two seats from Jammu region.
The Congress leader said in principle, NC could have retained all three seats from Valley but there has been a change of geography and constituencies in Anantnag-Rajouri seat after delimitation exercise.
The Assembly constituencies of Pulwama and Shopian districts were taken out and seats from twin border districts of Poonch and Rajouri included in the erstwhile Anantnag-Pulwama seat now renamed as Anantnag-Rajouri seat. “With the change in geography and Assembly constituencies of the Anantnag-Rajouri seat, it is now a new seat and Congress has more support base in Poonch and Rajouri than NC and PDP. NC has a workable solution to keep the BJP at bay,” the Congress leader said.