The BJP released its first list of candidates for the Jammu and Kashmir parliamentary elections on Monday (26 August). However, the party quickly withdrew its candidacy and will soon publish a new list with changes.

A total of 44 candidates were named in the published list – 15 for the first phase, 10 for the second and 19 for the third round of voting.

The party had included some constituencies in Kashmir such as Pampore, Shopian, Anantnag West and Anantnag in the first list, apart from its strongholds in the Jammu region.

In the last general elections in 2014, when Jammu and Kashmir was still a full-fledged state, the BJP had won 25 seats. The party is making all efforts to fend off the challenge of a resurgent Congress Party – in alliance with the National Conference – especially in the Jammu region, which has been a BJP stronghold since 2014.

The BJP’s central election committee met on Sunday evening (August 25) to finalise the party’s candidates for the elections. Elections will be held in the union territory in three phases, on September 18, September 25 and October 1. The counting of votes is scheduled for October 4.

Here are the names of the candidates, which will be reviewed and updated once the new list is available:

Stage 1

Pampore: Syed Showkat Gayoor Andrabi

Rajpora: Arshid Bhat

Shopian: Javed Ahmad Qadri

Anantnag West: Mohd Rafiq Wani

Anantnag: Syed Wazahat

Sriguenwara Bijbehara: Sofi Yousuf

Shangus-Anantnag East: Veer Saraf

Indian Whale: Tariq Keen

Kishwar: Sushiri Shagun Parihar

Padder Nagseni: Sunil Sharma

Bhadarwah: Daleep Singh Parihar

What: Gajay Singh Rana

Doda West: Shakti Raj Parihar

Ramban: Rakesh Thakur

Banish: Salim Bhat

Stage 2

Habakkukdal: Ashok Bhat

Gulabgarh (ST): Ashok Bhat

Reason: Kuldeep Raj Dubey

Shri Mata Vaishno Devi: Rohit Dubey

Kalakote-Sunderbani: Thakur Randhir Singh

Budhal (ST): Chowdhary Zulfikar Ali

Thannamandi (ST): Mohd Iqbal Malik

Surankote (ST): Syed Mushtaq Ahmad Bukhari

Poonch Haveli: Chowdhary Abdul Ghani

Mendhar (ST): Murtaza Khan

Stage 3

Udhampur West: Pawan Gupta

Chennai: Balwant Singh Mankotia

Ramnagar (SC): Sunil Bhardwaj

Banya: Lal-Gymnasium

Billawar: Satish Sharma

Basohli: Darshan Singh

Jasrota: Rajiv Jasrotia

Hiranagar: Vijay Kumar Sharma

Ramgarh (SC): Devinder Kumar Maniyal

Samba: Surjit Singh Slatia

Vijaypur: Chandra Prakash Ganga

Suchetgarh (SC): Gharu Ram Bhagat

RS Pura-Jammu South: Narinder Singh Raina

Jammu East: Yudhvir Sethi

Nagrota: Devender Singh Rana

West Jammu: Arvind Gupta

Jammu North: Shame Lal Sharma

Akhnoor (SC): Mohan Lal Bhagat

Chhamb: Rajeev Sharma