Azad, six others file papers for RS poll

Amir Karim Tantray

Tribune News Service

Jammu, January 28

On the last day of filing of nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha elections in the state, Leader of Opposition in the Upper House Ghulam Nabi Azad and six other candidates filed their nominations at the Assembly complex here today.
While the BJP and the PDP have fielded two candidates each as per a tacit understanding between them, the Congress-National Conference combine has fielded three candidates for the February 7 elections.
With a combined strength of 53 MLAs, the BJP and the PDP together are all set to grab three of the four Rajya Sabha seats whereas one seat is expected to go to the NC-Congress combine.
The NC and the Congress together have 27 MLAs and they are banking on the support of three more legislators, including CPM representative MY Tarigami.
A senior Congress leader accompanying Azad to the nomination centre told The Tribune that the Congress-NC combine was hopeful of getting the support of Tarigami, Peoples Democratic Front legislator Hakeem Muhammad Yaseen and Independent MLA Engineer Rashid.
Azad’s joint candidature was finalised during a meeting between Congress president Sonia Gandhi and NC working president Omar Abdullah at New Delhi yesterday.
“We have the numbers with us. As far as the policies and programmes are concerned, the NC and the Congress have been together much before Independence,” Azad said after filing his nomination papers.
“When Mahatma Gandhi was fighting for Independence, Sheikh Abdullah was fighting for democracy in J&K . Since then leaders of the NC and the Congress have been together. There have been personality clashes between the two parties, but that is bound to happen. Such clashes even take place within a family, between a father and a son. But there are no differences as far as our policies are concerned,” he said.
Azad, however, denied that the Congress and NC had joined hands because of the BJP. “Whenever national interest was under threat, we have come together,” the senior leader said.
Meanwhile, the Legislative Assembly complex here wore a festive look with PDP, BJP, Congress and NC supporters accompanied their candidates to file nomination papers.
The PDP has fielded Nazir Ahmed Laway and Fayaz Ahmed Mir for the RS poll while the BJP has nominated Shamsher Singh Manhas and Chander Mohan Sharma.
NC leaders Nasir Aslam Wani and Sajjad Ahmed Kichloo also filed their nominations.
For the notification number one, the seat currently being represented by Congress leader Saifuddin Soz, the PDP’s Fayaz Ahmed Mir is in direct contest with the NC’s Sajjad Ahmed Kichloo. On the notification number two, the seat currently being represented by Azad, BJP’s Shamsher Singh is locked in a straight fight with the NC’s Wani.
For the third notification, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Nazir Ahmed Laway and Chander Mohan Sharma are fighting for the two RS seats.