National Conference candidates for J&K Rajya Sabha polls: Here is why they are not random picks

Amid dissatisfaction in Congress over seat-sharing with the National Conference (NC) for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections, the NC has announced the names of three candidates for the four seats from Jammu and Kashmir.

 

NC president Dr Farooq Abdullah, who was earlier seen as a frontrunner for one of the seats, has decided not to contest. 

 

Instead, the party has fielded senior leaders Choudhary Muhammad Ramzan, Sajad Kichloo, and Shammi Oberoi as its nominees. 

 

The selections carry both political and tactical significance as the party faces a contest in which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also has considerable stakes.

 

Chaudhary, a veteran NC leader and four-time MLA from Handwara in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district, has held several ministerial portfolios in earlier NC-led governments. 

 

He lost the 2014 and 2024 Assembly elections to Sajad Lone, the chief of the People’s Conference (PC). His nomination is viewed as a calculated attempt by the NC to curb Lone’s growing influence in Kupwara.

 

By fielding Kichloo, a two-time MLA from Kishtwar, the NC aims to reinforce its presence in the Chenab Valley comprising the district of Doda, Kishtwar and Bhaderwah and challenge Sunil Sharma, the BJP’s Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly. 

 

Sharma defeated Kichloo in 2014 in Kishtwar.  In 2024, Sharma won the constituency by defeating Kitchloo. He remains one of the BJP’s most prominent figures in Jammu.

 

Oberoi is an NC loyalist and an aide of NC vice-president and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.

 

The Congress is dissatisfied with the NC over the offer of a seat where the BJP enjoys an advantage, while retaining the three safer seats for itself.

 

The BJP with a strong organisational base in the Jammu region is confident of securing at least one Rajya Sabha. A win would bolster the BJP’s claim of sustained political relevance in the Union Territory despite electoral setbacks in the Kashmir valley during the 2024 Assembly elections.

 

 

Political analysts say the Rajya Sabha elections will serve as an early test of the NC–Congress alliance, which was forged ahead of last year’s Assembly polls. Any breakdown in coordination could strengthen the BJP’s assertion that the alliance was fragile. 

India