Jammu, October 22, 2025 – As the autumn session of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly kicks off tomorrow, October 23, political gears are grinding in Srinagar today with the National Conference (NC) and Congress holding separate legislature party meetings to hammer out agendas, key issues, and strategies. NC’s top brass, including party president Dr. Farooq Abdullah and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, huddled in Srinagar around 11 AM, focusing on the session’s business – starting with obituaries for six deceased MLAs – and the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls on October 24 for four seats. Congress, meanwhile, convened an emergency meet led by JKPCC chief Tariq Hameed Karra at 2 PM, debating whether to join NC’s joint alliance strategy session amid growing tensions in the ruling coalition.
The NC has invited allies, including Congress, for a joint meet to align on RS elections and session tactics, but Congress skipped it, opting for its own deliberations. BJP, the opposition powerhouse, plans its legislature party meet tomorrow, October 23, chaired by Leader of Opposition Sunil Kumar Sharma, to counter the ruling bloc. Sources from the meetings, speaking off-record by 3 PM, revealed NC’s push for a united front on statehood restoration (echoing yesterday’s SC hearing) and flood relief, while Congress weighs demands for job quotas and land rights. The RS polls, with NC-Congress holding 46 seats, BJP 29, and PDP 3, could see NC grabbing three and Congress one, per early tallies.
For Jammu’s 5 million residents, this pre-session jockeying feels like a direct line to our daily grind. Down in the Dogra plains, where August floods gutted 4,000 homes and 70 bridges, costing Rs 5,000 crore, folks like Rajesh Kumar, 48, a Hindu trader from Raghunath Bazaar, paused his Diwali prep around noon to scroll updates: “These meets decide our fate – statehood means local say on rehab funds, not Delhi delays.” In Akhnoor’s border villages, Muslim farmers gathering over chai by 1 PM expressed: “Floods hit our crops; NC-BJP rifts slow aid – unite for us.” Sikh communities in Samba, at a 2 PM gurdwara chat with 150 voices, urged: “Polls for all faiths; protect our lands from scams like yesterday’s evacuee fraud.”
Historically, J&K’s assemblies have been battlegrounds – the 1951 Constituent Assembly shaped 370, while 2019’s abrogation dissolved the house, sparking unrest.