Jammu (Jammu and Kashmir): Day after the meeting of its Central Election Committee(CEC), the BJP on Monday released two revised lists of 16 candidates hours after naming 44 candidates for all three phases of the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections.
In the revised list, the BJP has named 16 candidates for Kashmir and Chenab valley seats while withholding the names of candidates for Jammu region. The saffron party has fielded Er Syed Showkat Gayoor Andrabi from Pampore. In Rajpora, Arshid Bhat will represent the party. The BJP has fielded Javed Ahmad Qadri from Shopian, while Mohd. Rafiq Wani is contesting from Anantnag West. Adv. Syed Wazahat will contest from Anantnag.
Other candidates for the first phase include Sofi Yousuf in Srigufwara-Bijbehara, Veer Saraf in Shangus-Anantnag East, Tariq Keen in Inderwal, Shagun Parihar in Kishtwar, and Sunil Sharma in Padder-Nagseni. Additionally, Daleep Singh Parihar in Bhadarwah, Gajay Singh Rana in Doda, and Shakti Raj Parihar in Doda West have also been announced by the BJP. Rakesh Thakur has been fielded from Ramban while Salim Bhat has been fielded from Banihal by the BJP in the revised list.
In the 2nd list, the BJP named Choudhary Roshan Hussain Gujjar from the Kokernag (ST) seat.
Most of the BJP candidates contesting in Kashmir are lesser known.
The list of second phase candidates, now withdrawn by the BJP, featured Ashok Bhat in Habbakadal and Mohammad Akram Chaudhary in Gulabgarh (ST), Kuldeep Raj Dubey from Reasi, while Rohit Dubey was fielded from Shri Mata Vaishno Devi. Thakur Randhir Singh was fielded from Kalakote-Sunderbani and Chowdhary Zulfikar Ali was fielded from Budhal (ST).
Likewise, the list of candidates for the third phase, now withdrawn, included Pawan Gupta from Udhampur West, Balwant Singh Mankotia from Chenani, and Sunil Bhardwaj from Ramnagar (SC). For Bani, the BJP had nominated Jeevan Lal; Satish Sharma was fielded from Billawar, and Darshan Singh from Basohli in the now withdrawn list.
The absence of senior BJP leaders including former Deputy Chief Ministers Kavinder Gupta and Nirmal Singh from the candidates list had raised eyebrows before the saffron party entirely withdrew the candidates list for the region. It remains to be seen whether the BJP will include sidelined Gupta and Singh in the candidates list in coming days.
BJP President and Union Minister JP Nadda on Sunday chaired the BJP's crucial Central Election Committee meeting in Delhi to finalise candidates for the crucial assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir being held after a gap of one decade.
The meeting was also attended by PM Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh besides the saffron party's Jammu and Kashmir president Ravinder Raina.
The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is going to polls in three phases on September 18, 25 and October 1. These are the first assembly elections in the region after the BJP government at the Centre abrogated Article 370 on August 5, 2019. In the last assembly elections held in 2014, when Jammu and Kashmir was a full-fledged state, the BJP had won 25 seats.
The party is making all out efforts to fend off the challenge from a resurgent Congress, which has tied up with the National Conference, especially in the Jammu region, a BJP bastion since 2014.
