Jammu and Kashmir will vote in three phases on September 19, September 25 and October 1
Srinagar:
The BJP today released a list of 44 candidates for the three-phase election to 90 parliamentary seats in Jammu and Kashmir, but soon deleted it. Hours later, the BJP released a new list, but it included the names of only 15 candidates selected for the first phase of the election. No changes were made to the candidates selected for the first phase.
Three important names were missing from the now deleted list: Ravinder Raina, BJP’s Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, and former deputy chief ministers Nirmal Singh and Kavinder Gupta. The list also included the name of Devendra Rana, the brother of Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh, who had switched from the National Conference.
Two Muslim candidates from the Kashmiri Pandits 14 were also included in the first list. Several former leaders of Congress, National Conference, PDP and Panthers Party who switched sides and joined the BJP were also included in the now-deleted list. It is learnt that some key omissions after the first list was released led to an outburst of resentment. This resistance seems to have forced the party to withdraw the three-phase list and re-release only the names of the candidates for the first phase.
Voting in Jammu and Kashmir will take place in three phases on September 19, 25 and October 1. The votes will be counted on October 4. These are the first parliamentary elections in Jammu and Kashmir after the former state lost its special status in 2019 and was divided into two union territories.
The first list of candidates was released this morning after the BJP Central Election Committee finalised the party’s list of candidates for the upcoming election. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP leader JP Nadda attended the important meeting in Delhi yesterday.
The last parliamentary elections in Jammu and Kashmir were held in 2014. In the 2014 elections, the BJP delivered an excellent result, winning 25 seats. The PDP became the largest party with 28 seats. The incumbent National Conference won 15 seats and the Congress 12. After the elections, the BJP and PDP surprisingly formed a coalition government led by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and, after his death in 2016, by Mehbooba Mufti.
This time, Jammu and Kashmir is facing a three-party contest between BJP, PDP and the National Conference-Congress alliance. However, Congress and National Conference have not yet resolved their differences over seat allocation. Senior Congress leaders KC Venugopal and Salman Khurshid have been rushed to Srinagar to clear the obstacles in the negotiations between National Conference and the local Congress leadership.
Earlier, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi met National Conference President Farooq Abdullah and Vice President Omar Abdullah and announced their alliance.
Tarun Chugh, BJP general secretary and head of the party’s Jammu and Kashmir campaign, scoffed at the merger, saying the Congress-National Conference alliance would collapse like a house of cards and suffer a humiliating defeat.
