Cong, PDP to go to J&K polls together

Not too long after serious differences had erupted between the Congress and Peoples democratic party (PDP), the ruling coalition partners in Jammu and Kashmir are getting ready to contest the forthcoming legislative Assembly elections together.

Disclosing this, Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Beigh, who belongs to the Mufti Mohammad Sayed-led PDP, said today the decision to contest elections jointly had been finalised and only the modalities "" like the seat distribution formula "" needed to be worked out.

The Assembly's six-year term (as against five-year in the rest of the country) ends on November 20.

According to Beigh, the polls are likely to be held from October-November, a move opposed by the opposition National Conference led by Farooq Abdullah.

In the last elections the PDP and the Congress had contested separately and both the parties had to forge a post-election alliance to set up a government in the wake of a hung assembly.

The two parties had worked out an exemplary coalition formula where each partner led the government for three years each "" first it was Mufti Sayed and later Ghulam Nabi Azad, the present chief minister.

This time, Beigh said, the Congress would be the senior member of the pre-election alliance.