Lok Sabha Opposition Leader Rahul Gandhi arrived in Srinagar on Wednesday. He is going to hold a series of meetings with Congress workers as a part of their preparations for the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Elections. The elections are slated to take place in three phases: September 18, September 25, and October 1.
On Thursday, the first meeting which Gandhi will have with party workers is slated at Mumtaz, Radisson Collection Hotel in Srinagar, following which he will address a media briefing at the Zewar, Radisson Collection Hotel. Equipped with Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, he will also meet with party workers at Celebration Banquet Resort in the Jammu division.
The leaders will be staying at the Lalit Palace Hotel, situated on the banks of Dal Lake in Srinagar. Security has been beefed up around the hotel. Gandhi and Kharge are also scheduled to meet with the rank and file of J&K Congress leaders and workers to take stock of the party's strength and make out a bid for the forthcoming elections.
Sources said that Gandhi and Kharge could also meet NC President Farooq Abdullah and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti to discuss a pre-election alliance against the BJP. Earlier this year, Congress had an alliance with NC in the Lok Sabha elections. Two of its candidates won in Jammu and one in Ladakh, while the NC won three seats in the Valley.
Jammu and Kashmir has had no elected government since June 2018, when the BJP pulled out of the PDP-BJP coalition government headed by Mehbooba Mufti.
Polling would be held in three phases: the first one on September 18, the second on September 25, and the third on October 1. The counting would be held on October 4, and the election process would be completed by October 6.
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