National Conference to contest alone in the upcoming parliamentary elections

The National Conference (NC) leader, Farooq Abdullah, announced on Thursday that his party will run a lone candidacy in the upcoming parliamentary elections. This move is viewed as a further blow to the opposition INDIA bloc coalition.

Speaking to reporters in Srinagar on seat sharing, the National Conference chief said, “As far as seat sharing is concerned, NC will contest alone and there’s no doubt about it.”
On being asked about the elections in Jammu and Kashmir, the three-time former chief minister said, “I think that elections in both states will be held with the parliamentary elections.”

Interestingly, a number of well-known National Conference figures, such as Sanjeev Khajuria, the president of the Kathua district, have joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Last month, a large number of BJP supporters and district officeholders defected from the National Conference. The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has called Abdullah to question him regarding the money laundering case involving the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association. The former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir was called in for questioning on January 11 but did not show up for the interview with the central agency.

In July 2022, the ED filed a supplementary charge sheet against Abdullah in the case.
Meanwhile, the INDIA bloc suffered a huge setback earlier in January this year after Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) vowed to fight the upcoming Lok Sabha polls alone in West Bengal.
Recently, the Rashtriya Lok Dal in UP also walked out of the alliance and parternered with the NDA.

Later in January, Nitish Kumar, the chief of the Janata Dal (Secular), one of the main architects of the INDIA bloc, left the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) in Bihar and re-aligned with the BJP-led NDA.