Jammu, Mar 20 (UNI) The National Conference and the Congress finally ink pact alliance for the Lok Sabha elections scheduled to begin from April 11.
The two parties alliance was announced by the National Conference president Dr Farooq Abdullah here on Wednesday while speaking to reporters after finalising it in a meeting with Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad and In-charge J&K Affairs Ambika Soni.
Dr Abdullah however, said, "Jammu and Udhampur will be contested by Congress and I will contest from Srinagar."
"There will be a friendly contest between NC and Congress in Anantnag and Baramulla. We are also discussing the Ladakh seat," Dr Abdullah told reporters.
Meanwhile Mr Azad said that friendly contest means that there will be no cut-throat contest between NC-Congress on these two seats (Anantnag and Baramulla).
"If either Congress or NC wins, it's a win-win situation for both of us," he added.
Pertinently NC has a long history of alliances with Congress as in 1965, the National Conference merged with the Congress and became the party’s J&K branch.
Later, NC formed an alliance with Congress in 1987 and 2008 and came to power in the state.
In 2009, it was for the first time that both the Congress and the NC fought the Lok Sabha polls together under an alliance.
Both seats of Jammu region were won by Congress. However, it lost Ladakh seat to an NC rebel who contested as an Independent candidate. Nevertheless, NC won all the three seats in the Kashmir Valley.
In 2014 general elections both the parties again went for the alliance but didn’t secure even a single seat.
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