NC denies back-channel talks for J&K govt formation

Srinagar, Oct 4 (IANS) Jammu & Kashmir National Conference (JKNC) on Friday denied rumours of any back-channel talks for government formation with any other political party outside INDIA bloc.

A spokesman of NC said, ahead of counting of votes on October 8, that NC is not engaged with any other political party or independent candidate in back-channel talks for government formation after the results are out.

The spokesman said: “Rivals of NC after sending their defeat have started this disinformation campaign and people are requested to ignore such baseless rumours.”

The NC statement comes a day after the senior BJP leader and party in-charge of J&K Assembly elections, Ram Madhav said that the next government would be determined by the voters of Jammu region.

The BJP is well entrenched in Jammu division while the traditional political stronghold of NC has been the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley.

The BJP fought the J&K Assembly polls on its own while the NC and the Congress fought in the pre-poll alliance.

As per the pre-poll agreement between NC and Congress, NC fielded candidates for 52 Assembly seats while the Congress fielded for 31 seats.

Both parties left two seats uncontested, one for the CPI-M in the valley and the other for the Panthers Party in Jammu division.

On five seats of Banihal, Doda, Kishtwar and Nagrota in Jammu division, and for Sopore seat in Kashmir valley, the two alliance partners could not reach a consensus. Both parties fielded candidates on these five seats maintaining that these candidates would engage in friendly contests.

J&K Assembly has 90 seats, 47 in Kashmir and 43 in Jammu. Of these, nine are ST seats and seven are SC seats.

After the J&K Reservation Act 2019, five seats are to be nominated by the Lt Governor on the recommendations of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Of these nominated members, two would be from the Kashmir migrant Pandit community and three from West Pakistan refugees. All these five members would be nominated simultaneously with the constitution of the Assembly J&K.

On the Puducherry model, five nominated members would have the power to vote during government formation.

In layman's terms, the simple majority for any party or group of parties to form government in J&K is 48 and not 44, as is generally believed.