Senior Congress leader and former Jammu & Kashmir CM Ghulam Nabi Azad has said that he does not see the grand old party winning 300 seats in the 2024 general elections to reverse the decision on Article 370.
Addressing a rally in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch on Wednesday, the Congress leader noted that only the Supreme Court can reverse the decision on Article 370 or Congress has to come to power with 300 plus seats. Azad said that he prays that his party gets 300+ seats in the elections but he doesn’t see it happening in the next polls.
“Only Supreme Court can decide on Article 370 or the ruling government can do it. But how will they do it if they abrogated it? For revocation of this decision, Congress needs the support of 300 plus MPs and under the current scenario, I don’t think that we will be able to grab 300 plus Lok Sabha seats in the 2024 elections. I wish, God willing, we could achieve this target, but the chances are bleak,” he said.
The Modi government had abrogated Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019 and bifurcated it into two Union Territories -- Jammu and Kashmir division; and Ladakh division. The government has said that the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir will be restored at an appropriate time.
In the general elections held in 2014, the Congress party had faced a humiliating defeat. The party, which had ruled India for most of its post-independence history, received 19.3% of the vote and won only 44 seats. It was the worst-ever performance by Congress. With its wider alliance, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), won a total of 59 seats. In order to get the status of the principal opposition party in the Lok Sabha, a party needs to have at least 55 MPs in the House that has 543 chairs.
In the 2019 general elections, the Congress under Rahul Gandhi's leadership won 52 seats, again failing to get 10% of the seats needed to claim the post of Leader of Opposition.
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