Congress will on Friday announce the names of the three candidates for Baramulla, Jammu and Udhampur LokSabha seats, the party’s Jammu and Kashmir president GA Mir said Thursday.
Mir said the state Congress has suggested Usman Majeed,Shoaib Lone and Salman AneesSoz for Baramulla seat, but didn’t disclose thenames of the candidates for Udhampur and Jammu seats.
The National Conference and Congress had Wednesday agreed ona seat-sharing arrangement for three LokSabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir and a’friendly contest’ on three other seats.
The Congress, according to the pact, will not field anycandidate against NC president Farooq Abdullah from Srinagar, while the NC leftthe Jammu and Udhampur seats for the Congress.
However, during the 2014 general elections, despite thealliance, the NC and Congress had lost all six parliamentary seats, with BJPwinning two seats in Jammu and one from Ladakh and PDP taking all three seatsof the Kashmir Valley.
Later, PDP MP from Srinagar Tariq Hamid Qarra had quitLokSabha seat as well as the party in 2016 while Mehbooba Mufti had resignedfrom Anantnag parliamentary constituency after being elected as the ChiefMinister in 2017. NC president Farooq Abdullah had won Srinagar LokSabha seatin the by-election in April 2017 while by-poll couldn’t be held in Anantnagsegment.
Mir said Congress is equally strong in all three regions ofstate.
“The people of the state are with Congress as the party isfighting divisive agenda of saffron parties,” he said. “The Congress is theonly secular force which can give a stable environment and ensure equitabledevelopment of all three regions of J&K.”
Party vice-president GN Monga said that senior Congressleader and former J&K chief minister GhulamNabi Azad will kick startelection campaign in Jammu and Kashmir regions.
“Azad sahib will address one rally in Jammu and one inKashmir,” Monga said, adding that final dates of rallies will be out in a dayor two.
Azad heads the party’s election management committee inKashmir.
Apart from Azad, the committee members are Ghulam Ahmed Mir,former minister NawangRigzinJora, former MP Tariq Hamid Karra, former unionminister SaifuddinSoz, former deputy chief minister Tara Chand, former MPMadanLal Sharma, former state minister GM Saroori and Asgar Ali Karbalai.
A senior Congress leader said Salman Soz and Raman Bhallawere the frontrunners for Baramulla and Jammu-PoonchLokSabha seats.