Top leaders rejoin Cong in J&K amid push to regain lost ground

Ayear after suffering a major setback in the Jammu region in the Assembly elections, the Congress is attempting to rebuild its organisational base and reclaim political ground across Jammu and Kashmir.

In the 2024 polls, the party won only six seats, five of them from Kashmir. Although the Congress fought the polls in alliance with the National Conference, it refrained from joining the Cabinet.

Revival efforts gathered momentum on Wednesday when two former ministers — Jugal Kishore Sharma and Abdul Majid Wani — rejoined the party along with hundreds of their supporters. Former Members of the Legislative Council (MLCs) Subash Gupta and Brij Mohan Sharma also returned to the Congress fold.

This follows another significant development earlier when former ministers Taj Mohiuddin from north Kashmir’s Uri and GM Saroori from the Jammu region re-entered the Congress after a brief stint with the Ghulam Nabi Azad-led Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP). Both leaders formally rejoined at the party headquarters in Srinagar.

Congress leaders say the steady return of senior figures over the past year is the outcome of sustained organisational outreach.

“We are focusing on the entire Union Territory,” said Ravinder Sharma, chief spokesperson of the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee. “Many leaders in both Kashmir and Jammu have come back in the last one year. Our continuous post-election efforts are yielding results, which is why prominent leaders and former ministers are returning.”

Despite last year’s electoral debacle in Jammu, Sharma claimed the party has recently regained ground in the region. “The Congress remains acceptable in both Kashmir and Jammu because of its secular approach,” he said.

Party insiders said that along with bringing back old cadres, the Congress is intensifying its public outreach. “We are working on multiple fronts to strengthen the organisation in both regions,” said a senior Congress leader, adding that pushing for immediate restoration of statehood is a key component of their political messaging. Leaders maintain that the return of prominent faces is helping the party rebuild at the grassroots, especially in areas where its organisational structure had weakened after years of defections and infighting.