Srinagar, Oct 20: After Congress declined the offer to contest the Nagrota seat, the National Conference on Monday decided to field District Development Council member Shamim Begum as its candidate for the constituency.
Speaking to news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), NC’s Provincial President for Jammu, Rattan Lal Gupta, said that the party has decided to nominate DDC member Shamim Begum as its candidate for the seat after Congress deciding against contesting the seat.
“The party high command has cleared her name and she will be filing nomination papers,” he said.
A Muslim Gujjar woman, Shamim Begum won 2020 district development council elections from Nagrota.
Amid widening fissures between the ruling alliance partners in Jammu & Kashmir, the Congress has turned down the National Conference’s offer to contest the Nagrota seat, stating that it has decided to leave the seat to its ally, the National Conference, in order to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party.
In a late-night development, the Congress decided against contesting the seat, “keeping in view the larger interests and the goal of defeating the BJP”.
“After detailed deliberations over the report of the Jammu & Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee, and taking into account various factors – including the fact that in the last Assembly elections in 2024, which were contested by Congress and NC on a friendly basis, the National Conference had secured second position in the final election results of the said constituency – the central leadership of the INC has decided to leave the seat to its ally, the National Conference, in furtherance of the broader principles and goals of the coalition to defeat the BJP,” the Congress said.
The ties between the National Conference and Congress have taken a hit after the former refused to offer the latter a safe seat in the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections, scheduled for October 24. The NC had offered Congress the fourth, relatively riskier seat, which the latter declined to contest.
The Congress leadership in Jammu and Kashmir, as well as in New Delhi, is miffed over the National Conference’s ‘reneging’ on its commitment to offer a ‘safe’ seat to the party in the Rajya Sabha polls—(KNO)
