No major change in BJP’s new list of 29 candidates for J&K Assembly polls

Jammu/New Delhi, Aug 27 (PTI) Despite resentment shown by some party leaders over selection of candidates for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections, the BJP on Tuesday released its revised list of 29 nominees for the second and third phase, without making any major changes except replacing one contestant.

With the release of the fresh list, the party has so far named the candidates for 45 assembly segments, including nine in the Kashmir Valley where it has not been able to open its account in the past assembly elections.

The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, which has a 90-member assembly, is going to polls in three phases on September 18, 25 and October 1. This will be the first assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir after it was downgraded to a Union Territory in August 2019 with its special status under Article 370 of the Constitution also revoked.

The BJP has made one change from the now-rescinded list, which was put out on Monday, as it has named former MLA Baldev Raj Sharma from Shri Mata Vaishno Devi seat in place of Rohit Dubey. All other names are the same for the same set of constituencies, announced yesterday before being withdrawn.

The party’s latest list has 10 candidates for the second phase of polls and 19 for the third phase.

The BJP has so far not named its nominee for Nowshera, which was represented in 2014 by its current state president Ravinder Raina, and Gandhinagar, from where its another senior leader and former deputy chief minister Kavinder Gupta was elected in the last polls.

The party fielded Devender Singh Rana from his strong pocket borough Nagrota and named Satish Sharma as its candidate from Billawar, which was represented by former deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh in the last assembly polls held in 2014.

Rana, who has won the 2014 elections from Nagrota on the National Conference ticket before joining the BJP three years back, is an easily amenable humble popular mass leader with a pan J&K presence and has nurtured and developed Nagrota constituency very well and is acceptable to all sections of society, a party leader said.

The BJP has reposed faith in former minister Chandra Prakash Ganga from Vijapur, former MLAs Pawan Gupta (Udhampur West), Jeevan Lal (Bani), Rajeev Sharma (Chhamb), Rajiv Jasrotia (Jasrota), Gharu Ram Bhagat (Suchetgarh –SC ) and Devinder Kumar Maniyal (Ramgarh-SC).

Sunil Bhardwaj was given the ticket from Ramnagar SC replacing former MLA R S Pathania, Ashok Bhat (Habbakadal in Srinagar), Kuldeep Raj Dubey (Reasi) after dropping former MLA Ajay Nanda, Thakur Randhir Singh (Kalakote Sunderbani) who replaced former minister Abdul Gani Kohli, Vijay Kumar Sharma (Hiranagar), Darshan Singh (Basohli) and Mohammad Akram Choudhary (Gulabgarh-ST).

The BJP fielded senior leader and national secretary Narinder Singh Raina from R S Pura-Jammu south, party vice president Yudhvir Sethi (Jammu East) and Arvind Gupta from Jammu West, dropping former minister Sat Paul Sharma.

Former minister Sham Lal Sharma, who joined the BJP after leaving the Congress in March 2019, was fielded from Jammu North while former minister Surjit Singh Slathia, who joined the BJP in October 2021, got a ticket from Samba.

A two-time MLA and former minister Chowdhary Zulfikar Ali, who recently joined the BJP after leaving the Apni Party, will contest from Budhal (ST) constituency, former MLA Balwant Singh Mankotia, who joined the BJP in September 2022, was fielded from Chenani, former minister Syed Mushtaq Ahmad Bukhari, who joined the BJP in February this year, was fielded from his stronghold of Surankote.

Mohd Iqbal Malik, who is a state executive member of the party and co-incharge minority morcha after joining the BJP in July 2019, was named the party’s candidate from Thanamandi, while three more new entrants into the party fold – former SSP Mohan Lal Bhagat, former MLC Murtaza Khan, Choudhary Abdul Gani – were fielded from Akhnoor-SC, Mendhar-ST and Poonch-haveli, respectively.

Meanwhile, a group of women BJP workers from the Ramnagar constituency staged a protest outside the party headquarters in Jammu, voicing their resentment against the party leadership for ignoring the women leaders while selecting the candidates.

The BJP has only fielded one woman candidate from the Kishtwar constituency.

“We want a woman candidate in our constituency,” said a party worker, criticising the leaders for not opening the doors to hear them.