Amid dissatisfaction in Congress over seat-sharing with the National Conference (NC) for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections, the NC has announced the names of three candidates for the four seats from Jammu and Kashmir.

NC president Dr Farooq Abdullah, who was earlier seen as a frontrunner for one of the seats, has decided not to contest.

Instead, the party has fielded senior leaders Choudhary Muhammad Ramzan, Sajad Kichloo, and Shammi Oberoi as its nominees.

The selections carry both political and tactical significance as the party faces a contest in which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also has considerable stakes.

Chaudhary, a veteran NC leader and four-time MLA from Handwara in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district, has held several ministerial portfolios in earlier NC-led governments.

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