Atul Ashok Howale 
New Delhi: Ahead of the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi underlined that the priority of both the Congress party and the INDIA bloc is to restore statehood to J&K.
“It is our priority and also of the INDIA bloc to restore statehood in J&K as soon as possible. We had expected this could be done prior to elections, but it is okay, elections have been declared. It is a step forward and we are hoping that statehood will be restored as soon as possible and the democratic rights of the people of J&K will be restored,” Gandhi said.
He added: “This is the first time since independence that a state has become a Union Territory, this has never happened before. Union Territories have become states but this is the first time that a state has become a Union Territory.”
The Congress party and the National Conference (NC) have jointly announced the seat-sharing agreement under which the NC will contest a majority of 51 seats while the Congress candidates will fight on 32 seats. On five assembly segments of Sopore in Kashmir Valley and Banihal, Bhaderwah, Doda and Nagrota in Jammu there will be “friendly contest” between both the parties.
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