Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee president Tariq Karra today said the party feels “trust has been hurt” after the National Conference (NC) offered it only one “unsafe” seat in the ongoing seat-sharing talks, suggesting that the NC may itself be reconsidering its place in the INDIA bloc.
Congress in Jammu and Kashmir yesterday decided to not contest in the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections on an unsafe seat after it could not secure a safe seat from its coalition partner National Conference.
Speaking to reporters, Karra said that the understanding conveyed to the Congress earlier was that it would be allotted a “safe seat” in the first or second round of seat distribution.
“But when the fourth seat — which we consider unsafe for Congress — was offered, our leadership met for six hours and unanimously decided that we should not contest elections just to lose,” he said.
Karra added that senior party leaders expressed resentment over what they described as a “backtracking” on commitments made at the highest level to Sonia Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge.
Karra said a letter was sent to Omar Abdullah, as the last communication regarding seat sharing was between Abdullah and AICC leader Nasir Hussain in Delhi.
“Omar replied asking us to talk to Dr. Farooq Abdullah, and his response made it clear that they would only discuss the fourth seat and not any other,” he said.
While Karra avoided using the word “betrayal”, he asserted that “the trust has definitely been hurt.”
He further hinted at internal discussions within the NC about its future in the INDIA bloc.
“It appears that the National Conference itself might be thinking about whether to stay in the
INDIA bloc or not. That’s a fact,” he said.
