Jammu: Day after the meeting of its Central Election Committee(CEC), the BJP on Monday released the first list of 44 candidates for all three phases of the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections.
In the first phase, the BJP has fielded Er. Syed Showkat Gayoor Andrabi in 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.
Most of the BJP candidates contesting in Kashmir are lesser known.
The second phase list features Ashok Bhat in Habbakadal and Mohammad Akram Chaudhary in Gulabgarh (ST). Kuldeep Raj Dubey is contesting from Reasi, while Rohit Dubey will run from Shri Mata Vaishno Devi. Meanwhile, Thakur Randhir Singh in Kalakote-Sunderbani and Chowdhary Zulfikar Ali in Budhal (ST) have been named by the saffron party.
Candidates for the third phase include Pawan Gupta in Udhampur West, Balwant Singh Mankotia in Chenani, and Sunil Bhardwaj in Ramnagar (SC). For Bani, the BJP has nominated Jeevan Lal; Satish Sharma will contest from Billawar, and Darshan Singh is running from Basohli.
The absence of senior BJP leaders including former Deputy Chief Ministers Kavinder Gupta and Nirmal Singh from the candidates list marks a significant departure from previous strategies and signals a shift in the party’s approach.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi 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 Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP President and Union Minister JP Nadda, and Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh besides the saffron party’s Jammu and Kashmir president Ravinder Raina.
