SRINAGAR: The National Conference (NC) August 11th finally announced its readiness to contest the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections, while ruling out alliances with any party. Party president Farooq Abdullah made a formal announcement at a news conference after a stormy two day meeting of the working committee. He said the decision to contest was taken unanimously, although sources said it took a tot of convincing and debating on the part of the majority to make some senior party men, who are known as hardliners, to veer around the decision.
Even though local Janata Dal (JD) leaders had always supported Dr Abdullah, he had to bow to party pressure in agreeing against electoral alliances with parties like the JD, and the Left. However, Dr Abdullah said that a subcommittee has been instituted to consider ‘’offers from various parties for electoral adjustments on merit”. The NC chief said two major developments had forced the party to change its earlier stance of not contesting the parliamentary elections. The first one was the United Front (UF) Government’s commitment to restore “’maximum autonomy” to the State, and the second was the issue of elections in the Pakistan occupied Kashmir. The NC, he said, would continue to Struggle for Test oration of complete autonomy to J&K, and also stick to its commitment to.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 14, 1996
