Seat-sharing talks between ruling allies Congress and National Conference is collapsed after the Congress declined to contest at the unsafe seat at number 4. Top leaders from the Congress and National Conference, including Sonia Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Syed Nasir Hussain, Dr. Farooq Abdullah, and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, were involved in high-level discussions over seat-sharing for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir. However, the talks ended in a bad note, with the Congress party refusing to contest the ‘risky’ seat offered by the National Conference. Senior leadership from both parties were engaged in behind-the-scenes negotiations regarding the seat-sharing arrangement. Congress had requested a safe seat, but the National Conference declined, offering a “risky” seat where the BJP holds an advantageous position. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge personally initiated communication with the National Conference leadership. If believes on the sources , Farooq Abdullah had offered a safe seat to the party, though there was no independent confirmation of this. The National Conference had not offered a safe seat to the Congress. However, the National Conference and Bharatiya Janata Party are set to formally enter the fray for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections, with three candidates from each party scheduled to file their nomination papers on today. The National Conference had initially reserved the fourth seat for its alliance partner, the Congress. However, following a day-long deliberation at the party headquarters in Srinagar, the Congress declined the offer, citing the seat’s risky nature and opting out of the contest. The Congress party had announced that it will not contest the “risky” Rajya Sabha seat being offered by the National Conference. Congress has conveyed its position to the National Conference leadership. It has officially wrote a letter to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah regarding our viewpoint who have asked Congress us to forward the letter to Farooq Abdullah, which we have done. The elections to the four Rajya Sabha seats and the by-elections to two vacant Assembly seats-Nagrota and Budgam-also were came up for discussion in the alliance partners meeting . In View of the above situation, Rajya Sabha and Assembly bye elections have entered into interesting mode. The cross voting by the independent MLAs is not rule out as BJP has start approaching each and every independent MLAs.
