Srinagar, Oct 10: Congress has started introspection after a poor show in the recently concluded assembly elections.
National Conference-Congress alliance contested the elections jointly with a motive to keep the BJP at bay. The National Conference contested for 51 seats and Congress for 32.
While the National Conference secured 42 seats, Congress on the other hand won only six seats.
Party’s senior leaders like Tara Chand and Lal Singh lost to their rivals and the party won only one seat out of 29 in the Jammu division.
Now after facing a poor response from the people especially from Jammu, the Congress is trying to figure out what went wrong.
“It was a coalition government and we have been successful in this assembly election. Yes, about certain seats where we expected the victory of our candidates but it didn’t happen. Now, we will assess it properly and try to fix the problems,” said a senior Congress leader.
As per the figures, the Congress’s vote share dropped from 18.01% in 2014 to 11.97% in the 2024 assembly election.
In 2014, the party had won 12 seats in Jammu and Kashmir.
Congress state spokesperson Ravinder Sharma told The Kashmir Monitor that the alliance between Congress and the National Conference has benefitted both parties.
“The coalition was formed to keep BJP at bay and we have succeeded in it. Both the parties allied and got the votes from their as well as the alliance partner supporters. Congress is a strong force in Jammu and our leaders got a good number of votes. Some leaders lost the election, which is a subject matter of discussion,” he said.
Congress state spokesperson said both the alliance parties are readying to form the government in Jammu and Kashmir.
It is after 10 years that Jammu and Kashmir is all set to have an elected government.
The J&K Assembly elections were held in three phases on September 18, 25, and October 1. Voter turnout in the first phase was 61.38%, dropping to 57.31% in the second phase before rising to 69.65% in the final phase. The overall voter turnout stood at 62.78%.
