Congress-NC alliance turns sour in J&K

A day after Congress- National Conference (NC) coalition in Jammu and Kashmir faced a rout in all six parliamentary constituencies of the state,  leaders from the two parties began blaming each other for the debacle.

Nasir Aslam Wani, NC’s provincial president in Kashmir and trusted lieutenant of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah regretted formation of pre-poll alliance with Congress. “Had National Conference fought elections separately, the results would have been entirely different,” he told reporters.

Earlier, state Congress president Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz said that there was no PDP wave in Kashmir ‘but hatred against NC on ground was the reason behind the alliance candidates defeat.’

Reacting to Soz’s assertions, Wani shot back, “If so called hatred against NC is responsible for defeat of coalition candidates in Kashmir, what led to its (Congress’s) decimation in rest of the country?”

He alleged that not on a single occasion during the campaigning of Lok Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir, Soz spoke against PDP’s ‘anti-people’ policies. “Actually he (Soz) tried to keep the NC and PDP in good humour,” Wani claimed.