Srinagar, Oct 12(KNS): The Jammu and Kashmir Congress on Sunday said it will not field a candidate for the fourth Rajya Sabha seat from the Union Territory, following detailed internal consultations and discussions with the National Conference (NC).

Addressing the media at the party headquarters in Srinagar, J&K Congress president Tariq Hameed Karra said that party members had a marathon meeting to discuss both the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections and the state assembly seats. He said that opinions were sought from all party members, including sitting legislators, on governance, developmental, and administrative matters.

Karra said the discussions were also focused on the ongoing talks between the Congress central leadership and the NC leadership regarding seat sharing for the Rajya Sabha elections. “Our central leadership had requested one safe seat—seat number 1 or seat number 2. In response, the National Conference offered seat number 4,” Karra said.

He said that after deliberations, all members agreed that seat number 4 was not as safe as the first two seats. “It was unanimously decided that the Congress will not field a candidate for seat number 4. We will leave the decision to our alliance partner, the National Conference, on how they want to proceed,” he said.Click Here To Follow Our WhatsApp Channel

Karra said the party’s decision would be formally communicated to the Congress central leadership for further guidance. “All the opinions and suggestions we received from our members will be sent to the high command. We will seek their advice on the next steps,” he said.

He added that discussions between the central leadership of both parties had been ongoing in recent days, and he had placed the outcomes of those talks before state party members during Sunday’s meeting. “We informed our members about the deliberations held between our leadership and the National Conference,” Karra said.

Karra also mentioned that the Congress will continue to keep communication channels open with the National Conference regarding future coordination on assembly seats. “We will be talking to them, and whatever opinion our members have will be shared with the high command,” he said.

He confirmed that former chief minister Farooq Abdullah had also been approached as part of the discussions, but there was no final response from him on the matter.(KNS)