The Congress will form an alliance for the upcoming Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir “while maintaining the respect of the party workers”, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said on Thursday.

Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir will take place in three phases on September 18, September 25 and October 1. The counting of votes will take place on October 4.

Congress workers in the Union territory have fought relentlessly for the party’s ideology, Gandhi said while addressing a workers’ meeting in Srinagar.

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“I have told [Jammu and Kashmir party president] Tariq Hameed Karra that there will be an alliance but it will take place only if Congress workers’ are respected,” Gandhi said. “Our workers and leaders will have to be respected if an alliance has to be formed.”

He added that the Congress workers in Jammu and Kashmir have protected the party’s ideology and forwarded it in the region. “I am aware how much you have suffered in this process,” he said.

This came after Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge met with Jammu and Kashmir National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah and vice president Omar Abdullah in Srinagar.

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Farooq Abdullah subsequently announced that his party and the Congress would contest all 90 Assembly constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir, reported PTI. “The common programme for the NC-Congress alliance is aimed at defeating divisive forces in the country,” he said.

The National Conference and the Congress had contested the Lok Sabha elections in a coalition as part of the INDIA bloc.

While addressing the Congress workers on Thursday, Gandhi also said that it is his party’s priority to restore statehood for the Union territory.

On August 5, 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir. It also bifurcated the state into two Union territories: Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.