Srinagar, Oct 10 : With four Rajya Sabha seats from Jammu and Kashmir coming up for elections, the National Conference has begun a crucial round of internal and alliance consultations in Delhi to decide which seat will be handed to the Congress under their existing pre-poll arrangement.
Senior party leaders told Kashmir News Service (KNS) that the NC’s top brass is already in the capital and the matter is being treated as “a final allocation decision rather than exploration.”
The NC–Congress understanding, stitched ahead of the Assembly polls and still operational, gave the Congress one of the four Upper House berths. However, what remains undecided and is at the heart of this round of talks is which of the four seats will be assigned to the Congress, as the NC has already announced three candidates of its own.
“The seat is reserved for Congress, the question is which slot and from which notification they will file,” said a senior leader familiar with the discussions.
Insiders said the decision has assumed urgency because voting for each of the four Rajya Sabha seats will be held separately, making the arithmetic and timing critical. “Even with the pre-alliance in place, the sequencing of these polls will decide whether a contest is forced or avoided,” one functionary involved in the negotiations said.
Of the four seats, the NC bloc is confident of clear numbers on two. The party’s strength of 42 in the 90-member House, adding Congress’s six and the backing of at least six Independents, gives it a working bloc of around 54 lawmakers. But to secure control across all contests and block any BJP maneuver, sources said the alliance still needs at least four additional votes.
That brings into play the PDP’s three seats, and one MLA each from the People’s Conference or Aam Aadmi Party and Awami Itehad Party.
A congree leader told Kashmir News Service (KNS) that this round in Delhi is “about clearing the Congress seat and putting the remaining arithmetic beyond doubt.”
The BJP, which has 28 seats, is reportedly watching the notifications closely and is understood to be exploring whether one or more contests can be forced if opposition ranks are not fully consolidated.
The internal talks have also revived discussions around the upcoming Assembly bypolls. According to leaders aware of the backchannel communication, the informal distribution being considered would see Budgam go to the NC and Nagrota to the Congress.
“This is likely but not being announced yet, since the focus is first on the Rajya Sabha slot,” a congree leader familiar with the exchanges said.
Political observers say the outcome of the current huddle will reflect how firmly the NC–Congress alliance can assert itself in the first major test after the Assembly results.
The NC leadership is expected to conclude its consultations with the Congress shortly, after which the seat allocation may be made public. However, leaders involved in the process maintained that “the announcement will come only after the arithmetic is locked and the slot is settled without ambiguity.”(KNS)
