Even as talks between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Peoples Democratic Party over government formation in Jammu and Kashmir remain inconclusive, the two parties have reached a seat-sharing agreement for the March 2 Legislative Council election. The PDP will field six candidates and the BJP five.
They had come to a similar understanding prior to elections to the four Rajya Sabha seats earlier this month.
“We do have an understanding for the [Legislative] Council elections with the PDP and we will be going for it in the same way that we went for the Rajya Sabha polls,” Nirmal Singh, senior BJP leader and legislator, told The Hindu . “We are hopeful of winning the maximum number of seats to make an entry into the Council.”
The arrangement will mean that the BJP will enter the Council for the first time.
Sources said Yasir Reshi, Javaid Mirchal, Saifuddin Bhat and Inayat Ali (Kashmir) and Surinder Choudhary and Firdous Tak (Jammu) are the likely PDP candidates.
The BJP probables are Tsering Dorjung (Leh), Sofi Yousuf (Kashmir), Vibodh Gupta, Ramesh Arora and Charanjit Singh Khalsa (Jammu).
Reacting to the seat-sharing arrangement, National Conference chief Omar Abdullah tweeted: “Both for the Rajya Sabha & MLC elections, seat-sharing has been effortless for them (BJP-PDP) so who are they (BJP-PDP) trying to fool on Govt formation? If there are “hurdles” in @BJP4India & @jkpdp alliance talks as we keep being told by “sources” how come they manage seat sharing so easily?”
The NC and the Congress are reportedly in a partnership. Sources said the Congress would not field any candidate for the Council elections and instead support the NC candidates.
The Council elections to 11 seats will be held under seven notifications, and each of the 87 J&K legislators can vote seven times to choose the 11 members.
