New Delhi: Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and incumbent Mallikarjun Kharge will review the grand old party’s alliances with the National Conference and the People’s Democratic Party in Jammu and Kashmir and with the Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab with the respective state teams on Tuesday.
Besides the alliances, the Congress chief will also firm up the party’s national view on the removal of Article 370 which granted a special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
The idea of forging a poll pact with regional parties like Farooq Abdullah’s National Conference and Mehbooba Mufti’s People’s Democratic Party germinated during former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra last year when the Abdullahs and Mehbooba joined the foot march in a show of solidarity. Since then, the NC and PDP leaders have attended the opposition alliance INDIA meetings.
“The INDIA alliance is going strong but we have to see how to fight the coming Lok Sabha elections and what should be the party’s strategy. Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge will chair a review meeting Dec 26. They would like to hear from the state leaders,” AICC general secretary in charge of Jammu and Kashmir Bharatsinh Solanki told this channel.
The erstwhile state had six Lok Sabha seats including Ladakh. The NC and BJP had won three seats each in the 2019 national polls. Later, Article 370 of Constitution was removed on August 5, 2019 by an act of Parliament and the former state was divided into two UTs Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh in the process.
As Article 370 was an emotive issue for the people of the border state, the UT Congress unit had organized a conclave on Dec 16 in Jammu to assess the fallout of the removal of the constitutional provision which was endorsed by the Supreme Court recently. “The people of the UT have suffered due to the removal of Article 370. Related issues will also be discussed in the review meeting,” Solanki said.
According to Congress Working Committee member and former J&K Congress chief Ghulam Ahmed Mir, the local unit passed a resolution on Dec 16 listing the political and economic issues in the UT. “Four years ago, the state was downgraded into a UT. We want restoration of statehood and assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir at the earliest. The people have lost their identity, rights to land and jobs and natural resources,” Mir told this channel. Rahul and Kharge will also review the neighbouring state of Punjab where they have to decide on the contentious issue of having a poll pact with the ruling AAP.
“See, it is for the high command to take a final call on the alliance. We will abide by whatever the high command will decide. However, the state unit has conveyed its reservations over a poll pact with the AAP to the leadership on several occasions. On our part, we have started preparing for all the 13 Lok Sabha seats in the state. We are holding meetings with the district teams on all the parliamentary seats and preparing agitational programs against the AAP government,” AICC secretary in charge of Punjab Chetan Chauhan told this channel. The mood in the Delhi Congress is the same on the seven parliamentary seats, said party insiders.
