NC should have consulted like-minded parties before picking RS poll candidates: Cong

Srinagar: AICC general secretary Ghulam Ahmad Mir on Monday said the National Conference (NC) should have taken all like-minded parties into confidence before finalising its candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls in Jammu and Kashmir.

Speaking to reporters in Anantnag district, Mir exuded confidence that no non-BJP MLA will vote for the party's candidates in the polls.

Biennial elections to fill four Rajya Sabha seats from Jammu and Kashmir, which have been lying vacant since 2021, will be held on October 24.

Separately, Rajya Sabha bypoll to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of AAP member from Punjab, Sanjeev Arora, will also be held on October 24.

"The chief minister should have taken into confidence all like-minded parties before naming their (NC) candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections," Mir said.

"There are 60 non-BJP MLAs in the 88-member House. I am confident that the BJP will not get even one of those 60 votes. They are facing internal problems and it is difficult for them to manage within their party," he said.

Mir said the Congress sought a safe seat from its alliance partner NC to contest the Rajya Sabha elections, but there was no response from the regional party.

"We wanted to field a candidate for the first three seats, but they offered us the fourth seat, which was not safe. Therefore, the Congress decided not to field a candidate for the fourth seat," he said.

Jammu and Kashmir has been unrepresented in the Rajya Sabha since February 15, 2021, the day Ghulam Nabi Azad and Nazir Ahmed Laway finished their terms.

Two other members, Fayaz Ahmed Mir and Shamsheer Singh Manhas, completed their terms on February 10 in the same year.