Jammu: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a large BJP campaign rally on Saturday in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) here. The mega rally named 'BJP Sankalp Maha Rally' is being held at the M.A. Stadium in Jammu city.
The Prime Minister will campaign for all the 24 BJP candidates for Assembly constituencies in the Jammu division that go to vote on October 1 in the third and final phase of the Assembly election in the Union Territory. All BJP candidates fighting in the third phase will be present at the rally.
These candidates are contesting from the Jammu, Samba, Kathua and Udhampur districts of the Jammu division. The Jammu district has 11, Samba three, Kathua six and Udhampur four Assembly seats.PM Modi will be campaigning for the BJP in J&K for the fourth time today.
He addressed a BJP rally in Doda on September 14, followed by two rallies, one in Srinagar city and the other in Katra base camp town of Mata Vaishno Devi shrine on September 19. Authorities have made extensive security arrangements for the Prime Minister's visit and the traffic department has issued an advisory to ensure hassle-free passage for the large number of people expected to attend the rally.
The Jammu division has been a traditional stronghold of the BJP. In the 2014 elections, the party had 25 seats in the 87-member J&K Legislative Assembly and most of these seats were from the Jammu division. After fresh Delimitation of Assembly constituencies, J&K now has 90 Assembly seats, 47 in the Valley and 43 in Jammu division.
These include for the first time, 9 Scheduled Tribe (ST) seats and 7 Scheduled Caste (SC) seats. The Assembly will also have five nominated members belonging to the migrant Kashmiri Pandit community and West Pakistan refugees. All these five nominated members will have the right to vote during the government formation in the Union Territory.
After abrogation of Article 370, West Pakistan refugees and those belonging to the Valmiki Samaj now have voting rights in the J&K Assembly elections. Before the abrogation of Article 370, these people could only vote for the Lok Sabha elections and not for the Assembly elections.
The BJP is fighting this election on its own while its rivals in Congress and National Conference (NC) are fighting in alliance.The counting for all the three phases of the J&K election held on September 18, September 25 and scheduled on October 1 will be taken up on October 8.
