SRINAGAR: The National Conference, which emerged as the single-largest party with 42 seats in the 90-member J&K Assembly, has outsmarted it ally Congress by securing the support of independents, including Congress rebels, and taking its tally to the majority mark on its own, experts said.The NC has so far got support of five independent MLAs, which has taken the party’s tally to 49. Among the seven winning independent candidates, Satish Sharma (who won from Chhamb) and Chowhdary Mohammad Akram, winner from Surankote (ST), were earlier associated with the Congress.Three other independents — Muzaffar Iqbal Khan, Pyare Lal Sharma and Shabir Ahmed Kullay — belonged to NC but they had rebelled against the party and contested as independent candidates. Rameshwar Singh, who won Bani seat in Jammu, was neither affiliated to NC nor Congress. The Congress could only win six seats, the party’s worst performance in J&K in recent years. “The Congress could have reached out to Satish, Akram and Rameshwar and tried to convince them to support the party, which could have taken its tally to nine and given it some leverage in the alliance,” an analyst said. “The Congress was outwitted by its alliance partner NC. The NC’s think tank strategised well and reached out to winning independent candidates even before Congress could reach out to them,” he said. “The Congress will still be part of the coalition government but it has lost the leverage and cannot dictate terms. It will have to be content with what NC offers to it,” the analyst added.
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