Azad to begin Congress LS poll campaign in J&K

The leader of Opposition (LoP) in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is arriving in Jammu on Tuesday, will begin Lok Sabha poll campaign for Congress.

Azad, who will arrive in the morning, is scheduled to address several public meetings in border districts of Rajouri and Poonch of Jammu Lok Sabha segment. In the evening, he will leave for Kashmir, reads a document that mentioned his three-day campaign schedule.

On Wednesday, Azad will address a public meeting at Lolab, Kupwara in north Kashmir, and then fly back in his chopper to address a public meeting at Fountain Garden, Poonch, and another meeting at Manjakote, Rajouri.

Along with Azad, several other top leaders of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) and J&K Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) will campaign for the party candidates for the 2019 general elections in the State.

While senior Congress leader and former minister Raman Bhalla is the candidate on the Jammu-Poonch seat, Vikramaditya Singh, the grandson of Maharaja Hari Singh is party’s candidate for Udhampur parliamentary seat.

State Congress chief GA Mir has been named as party candidate from southern Kashmir’s Anantnag seat while the party will not field any candidate on Srinagar seat, where National Conference patron, Farooq Abdullah will be the joint candidate of NC and Congress.

The Congress and the NC have entered into a seat-sharing pact for the three Lok Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir but will have “friendly fights” in three places – Baramulla, Anantnag and Ladakh.

The NC and Congress had contested three seats each in 2014 Lok Sabha elections and both the parties had drawn blank with BJP and PDP winning three each. NC had contested all three seats of Kashmir Valley and Congress two seats of Jammu region and one from Ladakh.