Will pollsters get it right this time in Kashmir?

With both parties refraining from fielding candidates in each others' areas, Kashmir Congress president Saif-ud-Din Soz, has said his party cadres will vote for the NC candidates in Srinagar, Baramulla and Anantnag constituencies.

NC leaders say their supporters would vote for the Congress in Udhampur, Jammu and Ladakh.

The NC-Congress coalition has been ruling for five years but their high commands are seldom on the same page. For instance, on the much-hyped decision to create new administrative units in the state, there have been serious differences between the NC and Congress ministers.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and NC patron union minister Farooq Abdullah have many a time had to invoke the intervention of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi to keep the boat steady.

For NC, the fiery and publicly anti-Congress and anti-New Delhi senior leader, Mustafa Kamal, has been highly critical of the Congress.