NC holds key meet ahead of assembly’s autumn session
Congress skips NC-convened joint strategy meet
Srinagar: A crucial meeting of the ruling National Conference (NC) began here on Wednesday, a day ahead of the nine-day autumn session of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly.
Top party leaders, including Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and party president Farooq Abdullah, were present in the meeting that was held at a private hotel here.
The legislature of the ruling party finalised their floor strategy for the assembly session, which begins on Thursday.
The NC will also deliberate on the Rajya Sabha elections for four seats from Jammu and Kashmir, which will be held on Friday.
The NC had invited alliance partner Congress also to the meeting, but no one from the national party has turned up.
J&K Congress president Tariq Hamid Karra also convened a meeting of the Congress legislature party at the party headquarters.
The meeting was in progress when the NC meeting began less than a kilometre away.
The relations between the two alliance partners have been said to be strained after the regional party refused to give a “safe seat” to the national party for the Rajya Sabha elections.
Congress was reportedly offered the seat where it was expected to face a stiff contest from the BJP.
Congress refused to field a candidate and also did not take up the NC offer of contesting the bypoll in the Nagrota assembly segment, where polling will be held next month.
The NC has fielded its candidates for four Rajya Sabha seats as well as the Nagrota assembly Bypoll.
Notably, the Congress leadership decided against participating in the meeting, which was aimed at formulating a joint strategy for the legislative calendar and Rajya Sabha polls.
Sources said that the party will hold another meeting tomorrow at 6:00 PM to discuss its strategy for the Rajya Sabha polls scheduled on October 24.
“The discussions remained inconclusive today. The views put forth by MLAs during the meeting will be presented to the Congress high command. A final decision-whether to vote or abstain-will be taken during tomorrow’s meeting,” sources said.
The NC had extended invitations to all legislators of the ruling alliance, including six Congress MLAs, five independents, and CPI(M) MLA Muhammad Yousuf Tarigami, for the meeting scheduled at Hotel Radisson Collection.
The rift between the NC and Congress has been widening over the past two weeks, particularly after the NC denied Congress a safe seat in the Rajya Sabha elections. Instead, the NC offered a riskier seat, which Congress declined to contest. The NC also proposed the Nagrota Assembly seat to Congress, which was similarly rejected. (with inputs from PTI, KNO)
