As the Congress and National Conference are fighting against each other in a “friendly contest” from two Lok Sabha seats of Kashmir Valley and one seat of Ladakh region, leaders of both parties have different interpretations of a friendly contest. However, in the friendly contest both parties will be asking their voters to vote for their parties.
The NC says whosoever wins from the “friendly contest” seat would be joint candidate of the NC and Congress, while the Congress says in a ‘friendly contest’ seat the parties will not criticise or campaign against each other.
The NC will not contest from the two parliamentary seats of Jammu while the Congress in response will not contest from Srinagar seat, where from Dr Farooq Abdullah is candidate of the NC and Congress.
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According to Kashmir region president of NC, Nasir Aslam Wani, a friendly contest means whoever wins the seat will be joint candidate of the NC and Congress party. He says the parties have seen that votes of the parties usually doesn’t transfer to the joint candidate in Assembly elections. “That is why the parties will get respective votes, and whoever wins will be joint candidate,” he added.
Wani, who is senior leader of the party, says in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls they had a joint candidate from South Kashmir’s Anantnag parliamentary constituency. “As immediately after the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, there were Assembly polls, the Congress vote didn’t transfer to the joint candidate who was from our party. Instead, the vote went to other parties, and with the result we lost the seat,” Wani told Outlook.
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“This time we have devised a strategy, that let the Congress take its own vote and we will take our own vote, and this way the vote of the parties will not transfer to any third candidate. It will not also confuse the voters of the parties,” he added.
The NC candidate from South Kashmir’s Anantnag constituency is former High Court judge Justice Hasnain Masoodi, while the Congress is yet to announce its candidates. The NC candidate from North Kashmir’s Kupwara-Baramulla constituency is senior party leader Akbar Lone. One of the reasons that made Congress not contest from Srinagar is that the party has not much presence in Srinagar constituency.
The National Conference has not fielded any candidate from two parliamentary constituencies of Jammu, saying as the Congress has dominant presence in the region the NC will not field any candidate. “Our main aim is to defeat the fascist BJP in Jammu and we think by strengthening Congress in the region we can do it,” Wani said.
Explaining the difference between an alliance and friendly contest between the National Conference and Congress, state Congress chief, Ghulam Ahmad Mir told Outlook that initial proposal of the NC was that the Congress should contest from two seats of Jammu and one seat of Ladakh, while the NC would contest from all three seats of Kashmir Valley. “This wouldn’t have been good for any of the parties. We are strong in Ladakh and Kashmir also besides Jammu region and we had no desire to convey that we have kept Kashmir for National Conference and Jammu with Congress,” Mir said.
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“We had in fact told the NC to contest from one seat of Jammu to maintain its presence in the region. They took the decision they will not contest from Jammu but we informed them that we will contest from Kashmir,” Mir said.
He says in response to their decision not to contest from the two seats of Jammu, the Congress party decided not to contest from Srinagar. Like Wani, Mir also says that after the Lok Sabha elections there will be Assembly elections and the Lok Sabha will be testing waters for the prospective Assembly candidates.
“In case, we have joint candidates from North Kashmir or South Kashmir, local candidates of both the parties wouldn’t have been able to show the results to make it necessary for friendly contest,” Mir said.
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“This election will help us understand the strength of local candidates,” Mir said.
A friendly candidate means both the parties will not criticize each other during the election campaign. “We will be hitting out at the BJP and BJP sponsored candidates,” Mir said.
