Within days after Congress received a severe setback on seat-sharing in two important states of West Bengal and Punjab, the National Conference showed teeth of the "Grand Old Party" in Jammu and Kashmir where talks are going on for seat-sharing in the coming Lok Sabha elections.
Senior National Conference leader and Lok Sabha member from Anantnag Parliamentary constituency Hasnain Masoodi on Saturday asked Congress leaders to learn lessons from West Bengal and Punjab.
"Developments in West Bengal and Punjab are an eye-opener for the Congress party. Instead of behaving arrogantly with the coalition partners Congress leadership must give due respect to the constituents of the INDIA block", Masoodi said and regretted the Congress leaders are not treating their partners properly.
Important to mention here that the National Conference leader Hasnain Masoodi is a Lok Sabha member from the Anantnag Parliamentary constituency which has turned into a bone of contention among constituents of the INDIA block in J&K.
Congress received a severe setback on Wednesday when West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced that her party TMC would contest all the Lok Sabha seats of West Bengal.
Within minutes after Mamata Banerjee's announcement, Chief Minister of Punjab, Bhagwant Singh Maan also declared that the ruling Aam Aadmi Party will win all 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab.
"In West Bengal and Punjab, TMC and AAP are big partners but the Congress leaders are not ready to give due regard to these parties", Masoodi said and pointed out that the situation is also not good in Uttar Pradesh where Congress leaders are not giving due respect to Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav. "Congress leaders should respect the ground situation in all states", he said.
We will not leave any seat for coalition partners in Kashmir
Regarding seat-sharing talks in Jammu and Kashmir, Masoodi made it clear that the NC will not leave any of the three seats for the Congress or the PDP.
"Three seats won by the National Conference in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections are non-negotiable because there is no reason for the Congress or the PDP to stake claims of any of these three seats", he said.
Important to mention here that on January 16 the National Conference staked its claim on the majority of the six Lok Sabha seats in the Union Territories (UTs) of J&K and Ladakh.
General secretary of the National Conference and former minister Ali Mohammad Sagar asserted that there was no reason for any constituents of the INDIA alliance in J&K to stake a claim on any of the three Parliamentary seats of Kashmir Valley.
"In the 2019 general elections the National Conference won all the three seats of Kashmir Valley so the question of leaving these seats for constituents of INDIA alliance does not rise", Sagar said and asserted that the National Conference has a genuine claim on one seat of Jammu province.
