NEW DELHI – Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, CPP Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, former party chief Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are among the 40 ‘star campaigners’ whose names were announced on Saturday for the first phase of Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir scheduled on September 18.
The list, issued by Congress General Secretary K.C. Venugopal, also includes his own name besides some prominent party leaders like Jairam Ramesh, Ambika Soni, Ajay Maken, Salman Khurshid, and Kanhaiya Kumar, among others.
The names of Himachal Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, former Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Chhanni, ex-Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot also feature in the list.
The Congress has already stitched an alliance with the National Conference for the elections.
To campaign for NC-Congress candidates, Rahul Gandhi will address two election rallies in Jammu and Kashmir on September 4.
Party general secretary and candidate from Dooru Assembly constituency of north Kashmir Anantnag district, Ghulam Ahmad Mir told reporters that the Congress-NC alliance candidates desire that Rahul Gandhi address election rallies for them in the UT.
“Rahulji will arrive in J&K on September 4 and address two election rallies, one in Jammu and the other in Kashmir Valley,” Mir said.
The National Conference (NC) and Congress have worked out a pre-poll alliance in J&K. As per the terms of the seat-sharing arrangement, out of the total of 90 Assembly seats, the NC will contest 52 and the Congress 31 seats.
Both parties will leave two seats, one for the CPI(M) in the Valley and the other for the Panthers Party in the Jammu division.
The two alliance partners could not reach an agreement on five seats, including Nagrota, Doda, Bhaderwah and Banihal in the Jammu division and Sopore in the Kashmir division. Both parties will field candidates in these five Assembly seats and will engage in a ‘friendly contest’, according to the terms of the seat-sharing arrangement.
The former chief minister and vice president of the NC, Omar Abdullah will contest the election from the Ganderbal Assembly seat in the Ganderbal district. The NC founder and grandfather of Omar Abdullah, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah won this seat in 1975 when he rejoined mainstream politics. Dr Farooq Abdullah has won Assembly elections from Ganderbal thrice while Omar Abdullah won from this constituency twice. Omar Abdullah lost in Ganderbal to Qazi Mohammad Afzal of the PDP in the 2002 elections.
NC has already announced its candidates for 50 seats while the party is yet to name its candidates for the Budgam and Beerwah constituencies in the Valley.
There is speculation that Omar Abdullah might fight the Assembly election from one more seat while the NC president, Dr Farooq Abdullah would not join the electoral fray personally this time.
Former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is also not standing in these elections. Her daughter, Iltija Mufti is fighting the election from the Bijbehara constituency, which is the home town constituency of the Mufti family.
Election to the 90-member Jammu and Kashmir Assembly will be held in three phases — on September 18, September 25, and October 1. The ballots will be counted on October 8.
This will be the first Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir since 2014, and also the first after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019. -IANS
