Congress Finalizes Initial Candidates for Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Polls

The Congress' central election committee met to finalize initial candidates for the upcoming assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir. Party leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, attended the meeting. The Congress has formed a pre-poll alliance with the National Conference, and further discussions on candidates are ongoing.

The Congress' central election committee convened on Friday to finalize initial candidate selections for the forthcoming assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. Among the attendees were Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Rahul Gandhi, and other senior leaders such as Tariq Hameed Karra and Salman Khurshid.

According to sources, the committee will reconvene soon, as only a few names have been finalized so far and further deliberations are needed to finalize the remaining candidates. This meeting took place just one day after the National Conference declared a pre-poll alliance with the Congress for the upcoming assembly elections.

National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah announced that a seat-sharing arrangement has been finalized for most constituencies, with consensus talks ongoing for the rest. Notably, this is the first assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019. The elections will occur in three phases on September 18, September 25, and October 1, with vote counting scheduled for October 4.

(With inputs from agencies.)