Congress to seal J&K, Bihar seat pacts soon

NEW DELHI: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said his party will finalise alliances with regional parties in Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir by the end of this week.

“Alliances have firmed up in a number of states like Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Jharkhand. Talks on alliance in Bihar have practically concluded. Conversation on alliance in J&K is close to the final stages,” Gandhi told a press conference in Chennai.

According to Congress leaders familiar with the developments, the party is expected to contest 11 of the 40 seats in Bihar while the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) will get 20. The remaining seats will go to smaller allies. In Jammu and Kashmir, the Congress is set to contest the elections with the National Conference (NC).

Both the parties are expected to stick to the 2014 formula of contesting three seats each.

NC provincial president Nasir Aslam Wani said his party’s parliamentary board is meeting soon to announce its candidates for the Lok Sabha elections that begin from April 11. “We are in talks with the Congress for a possible alliance,” he said.

Both the parties are keen to ensure that the anti-bjp votes, especially in Jammu and Ladakh regions, do not get divided.

The Congress has been slow in firming up alliances compared to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which has so far brought about three dozen parties in the National Democratic Alliance fold. It has finalised alliances in Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Maharashtra, where a formal announcement is awaited. The Congress has rejected any tie-up with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi and Punjab.