NEW DELHI: Congress's former J&K unit Presidents Ghulam Ahmed Mir, Peerzada Mohd Syed, and Vikar Rasool Wani were among the nine candidates announced by the party in its first list for the coming elections in the UT.
While Mir has been fielded from his Dooru Assembly seat in the Anantnag district, Syed has been fielded from the Anantnag constituency, and Wani from the Banihal Assembly seat in Ramban district.
The other candidates announced by the party are Surinder Singh Channi from Tral in Pulwama district, Amanullah Mantoo from Devsar in Kulgam district, Sheikh Zafarullah from Inderwal in Kishtwar district, Nadeem Sharief from Bhadarwah in Doda district, Sheikh Riyaz from Doda, and Dr Pradeep Kumar Bhagat from Doda West.
Notably, the list comprises candidates for three of the five seats where the Congress and the National Conference have agreed to hold a "friendly contest".
The list was released late on Monday night, hours after senior Congress and National Conference leaders, after hectic daylong discussions, reached an agreement on seat-sharing for the Assembly elections.
Addressing a press conference in Srinagar, NC President Farooq Abdullah, senior Congress leaders K.C.Venugopal, Salman Khursheed and J&K unit chief President Tariq Hameed Karra said that the two parties have reached an agreement on seat-sharing on 85 seats out of the total 90 seats and a ‘friendly contest’ on the remaining five seats.
Out of the agreed 85 seats, the NC will contest 51 seats while the Congress will contest 32 and of the remaining two, one each will go to the CPI-M and the Panthers Party.
The five seats for the friendly contest are Banihal, Doda, Nagrota, and Bhaderwah in the Jammu region and Sopore in the Valley. Karra said the two parties will field candidates against each other on these five seats, but "the contest would be totally friendly and completely disciplined".
Jammu and Kashmir is slated to undergo three-phase Assembly polls, with first phase (24 seats), second (26 seats) and third phase (40) falling on September 18, September 25, and October 1. The results will be declared on October 4.