National Conference (NC) vice-president Omar Abdullah on Tuesday said that his party will hold a second round of discussions with the INDIA bloc on Lok Sabha seat sharing in the two union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and also Ladakh as they were unable to reach a consensus in the earlier round of talks last week.
There has been one round of discussions in Delhi with the INDIA alliance. Now a second round of discussion will be held, he said.
Omar said that the Congress led INDIA bloc was formed to reduce the seats of BJP and not of its own alliance partners. But he made it clear that the NC will not surrender any of the three seats in the Kashmir valley — Srinagar, Anantnag and Baramulla — that it won in the last Lok Sabha elections. Whatever talks would be held will be on the two seats of Jammu and one of Ladakh that were won by the BJP.
“There were certain proposals that were put forward by the Congress which required to be discussed within the NC. One of their proposals has not found acceptance from senior leadership of NC. So we will go back and hold a second round of talks. Even including one seat of Ladakh, it is only six seats and anyway as I have always been pointing out three seats are already held by NC so we are discussing only three seats, Jammu, Udhampur and Ladakh. So I don’t think it will be too difficult and I am sure that in the next round we will have it concluded”, Omar added.
NC chief Dr Farooq Abdullah, who was also present with Omar, also confirmed that the talks were on and he was hopeful that seat sharing will be finalised soon. “It is essential to strengthen the INDIA bloc and contest the election together. If we don’t contest the election jointly then we will be putting the country in danger,” he said.
During the earlier round, the Congress had put forward some proposals which required to be discussed with the senior leadership of NC. One of these proposals was not acceptable to the NC leadership, he said.
Replying to a question about the defections from NC and several party activists joining the BJP, Dr Farooq Abdullah said ”People come and go during the elections season but this will not affect our poll prospects. We have to contest the election on our own strength as we have been contesting in the past.”
“Being in the INDIA bloc, we will fight the election jointly. It is essential to do that as we cannot live in isolation. It is very essential to strengthen the INDIA alliance. We cannot strengthen alone, we have to stay with other political parties to remain strong”, he added.