Jammu: Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will launch the party’s J&K election campaign on Wednesday. He is expected to speak at two election rallies in the union territory.
During the first round of the three-phase Assembly elections, Rahul Gandhi will address one rally each in Jammu and Kashmir.
According to Congress sources, a special plane carrying Rahul Gandhi would land at Jammu Airport around 10 a.m.
“From the airport, Rahul Gandhi will take a helicopter for Sangaldan in Ramban district, where he will address a Congress rally supporting the party candidate, Vikar Rasool Wani, around 11 a.m.
Sangaldan is part of the Banihal Assembly constituency in the Ramban district of the Jammu division.
Unable to agree on seat-sharing on the Banihal seat, Congress and the National Conference (NC) have fielded their own candidates from there.
Party general secretary Bharatsinh Solanki and state Congress president Tariq Hameed Karra will accompany Rahul Gandhi during the daylong campaign.
From Sangaldan, Gandhi will move to the Dooru Assembly constituency in the Anantnag district of Kashmir.
“At 12.30 p.m., Rahulji will address a Congress rally in Dooru Assembly constituency in favour of party candidate G.A.Mir. These two rallies start a series of Congress star campaigners seeking support for the party candidates. Later, Sonia Gandhiji, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who are among the 40 Congress star campaigners in J&K, will also campaign for the party candidates”, party sources said.
Three former JKPCC presidents, Vikar Rasool Wani, G.A. Mir, and Peerzada Sayeed, are fighting the first phase of the J&K elections.
Voting for the first phase takes place on September 18.
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Congress and NC have announced a pre-poll alliance, according to which the NC will fight for 52 seats and the Congress for 31 seats. The alliance has left two seats, one for CPI(M) and one for the Panthers party.
In five seats, Nagrota, Bhaderwah, Banihal, and Doda in the Jammu division and Sopore in the Kashmir division, both parties will field candidates against each other in what the alliance calls ‘a friendly contest’.
J&K has 90 Assembly seats, 47 in Kashmir and 43 in Jammu. Nine of these are reserved for STs, and seven are reserved for SCs.
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–IANS
(Photo: IANS/Qamar Sibtain )
