Jammu and Kashmir Elections: How Congress, NC navigated their love-hate relationship through the decades

The Congress and National Conference have announced a pre-poll alliance for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections. (Photo: X/@Kharge)

The Congress party and the National Conference announced Monday evening that they have finalised a pre-poll alliance for the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir elections. As per the arrangement between the two sides, the National Conference will contest 51 of the 90 Assembly seats, the Congress on 32 while there will be a ‘friendly contest’ on five seats.

The two parties have shared power and ran a coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir from 2008 to 2014. However, this is one of the rare instances when they have entered a pre-poll alliance.

Where it all began

It all began when Maharaja Hari Singh, the last ruler of the then princely state, signed the Instrument of Accession with India on October 26, 1947, and appointed Sheikh Abdullah as the emergency administrator of Jammu and Kashmir. In the subsequent year, Abdullah was appointed as the Prime Minister of the interim government, a post equivalent to chief ministers at the time.

In the 1951 Assembly elections in the state, the National Conference swept the elections, winning 73 of the 75 seats. Two years later, Abdullah was arrested and the government disbanded on the orders of Karan Singh, the son of the erstwhile ruler and the Prince Regent, apparently at the directions of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, according to a report in The Indian Express.

Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed of the NC succeeded Abdullah who remained imprisoned as the NC swept the 1957 and 1962 Assembly elections. Mohammed remained the PM from 1953 to 1963. In 1963, Kwaja Shamsuddin was appointed as the PM, but Shamsuddin resigned in early 1964, ostensibly under pressure from Nehru, and the NC was then coerced to elect Congressman Ghulam Mohammed Sadiq as the PM. A year later, it merged with the Congress.

In the elections held in 1967, the Congress bagged 61 of 75 seats and an NC faction led by Mohammed won 8 seats. Abdullah was released later that year.

The Congress went on to back a government led by Abdullah following the Indira Gandhi-Sheikh Abdullah Accord in 1975. However, it withdrew support in 1977 and the state was placed under President’s rule. However, Assembly elections were held later that year following the withdrawal of the Emergency saw the reconstituted NC win 47 seats while the Janata Party bagged 13 seats. The Congress, on the other hand, was relegated to third spot with 11 seats.

The Farooq Abdullah era

Farooq Abdullah took over as the Chief Minister following the demise of his father Sheikh Abdullah in 1982. In the elections held a year later, the NC under Farooq emerged victorious again. It is here that the relations between the two parties started to go south again.

In 1984, Governor Jagmohan dismissed the Farooq Abdullah government and installed a government led by the Ghulam Mohammad Shah-led Awami National Conference following the withdrawal of support by some MLAs, including 12 of the NC.

The situation in Kashmir nosedived after the Governor dismissed the Shah government in 1986 and imposed Governor’s rule in the state, leading to widespread unrest and anger spilling out on to the streets.

The Congress under Rajiv Gandhi then made a fresh attempt to mend fences and Farooq Abdullah formed a government again with their support in November 1986. However, the Centre’s interference only worsened the sentiment in the restive state.

In 1987, the NC and the Congress contested the 1987 Assembly elections together. The infamous polls were seen as “rigged” in favour of their alliance. The results saw NC won 39 seats, the Congress 24 and the newly formed Muslim United Front (MUF) 4. Farooq resigned in 1990 and the state – facing an outbreak of armed militancy – was placed under the President’s rule till 1996.

The biggest surprise

The elections in 1996 saw the NC emerge as the winner again with 57 Assembly seats followed by the BJP at 8 and the Congress with 7 seats. In the Lok Sabha elections held that year, the NC joined hands with the non-Congress and non-BJP United Front but did not participate in the polls. However, it walked out of the grouping in 1998.

Farooq sprang the biggest surprise of his political career in 1999 when the NC joined the NDA and Omar Abdullah became a minister in the government led by then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He served as a Minister of State (MoS) from October 1999 till his resignation in December 2002.

However, allying with the BJP had its repercussions as the decision failed to impress the people in the Valley. In the 2002 Assembly elections held just months after the Gujarat riots, the NC fared miserably and Omar, who had taken over as the NC chief in July that year, lost from the family’s stronghold of Ganderbal.

In July 2003, Omar resigned as the Union minister and the NC severed its ties with the BJP. However, with the Congress and the PDP joining hands to form the government, the NC was relegated to obscurity.

The revival of NC-Congress ties

It took five years for the NC to make fresh attempts to reconcile its ties with the Congress ahead of the 2008 trust vote over the Indo-US nuclear deal where the NC backed the UPA. The two parties joined hands again after the Congress-PDP alliance fell apart in 2008 over the Amarnath land row, but contested the Assembly polls separately in 2008. They formed a coalition government with the NC winning 28 seats, followed by the PDP at 21 seats and the Congress at 17. Omar became the CM for the first time.

The Congress and the NC contested the 2009 Lok Sabha elections in an alliance and the latter became part of the UPA. Farooq was later inducted into the Union Cabinet.
2014 and beyond

The Lok Sabha elections in 2014 proved to be a reality check for several parties and the Congress-NC alliance wasn’t spared either. The two partners contested the polls together but drew a blank in the state. Their alliance collapsed soon after.

The parties fought the 2014 Assembly elections separately and joined hands again in 2017, when the Congress supported Farooq in the Srinagar Lok Sabha bypoll. The two parties were back together again and contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in a tactical alliance.

The Congress contested the two seats in Jammu and had a friendly contest with the NC in Baramulla and Anantnag. It did not field a candidate against Farooq in Srinagar. The two parties had an alliance in the recent Lok Sabha elections too. They contested three seats each with the NC winning two and Congress none.