Politics

BJP Unveils First List of 44 Candidates for Jammu & Kashmir Assembly Elections 2024

Bharatiya Janata Party has released the first list of 44 candidates for Jammu and Kashmir assembly polls on Monday. The election is slated to take place in three phases—September 18, September 25, October 1—while votes would be counted on October 4.

The BJP, in its list, declared 15 nominees for the first phase, 10 in the second phase, and 19 in the third phase. The most prominent amongst the nominees include Arshid Bhat from Rajpora, Javed Ahmed Qadri from Shopian, Mohd Rafiq Wani from Anantnag West, and Adv. Syed Wazahat from Anantnag. Besides, Sushri Shagun Parihar has been fielded from Kishtwar and Gajay Singh Rana from Doda.

Other prominent candidates are Kuldeep Raj Dubey for Reasi, Rohit Dubey for Shri Mata Vaishno Devi, Chowdhary Abdul Ghani for Poonch Haveli, Pawan Gupta for Udhampur West, Dr. Devinder Kumar Maniyal for Ramgarh (SC), and Mohan Lal Bhagat for Akhnoor.

In fact, trying to hold on to its bastions, the BJP had its Central Election Committee meet on Sunday evening to finalize these selections. In the 2014 assembly elections held when Jammu and Kashmir was a state, the BJP won 25 seats. However, it has to face a tough competition from a rejuvenated Congress that has tied up with National Conference this time.

Interestingly, in this election, the BJP has decided not to go for any kind of alliances with any other political parties and to back strong independent candidates within the Kashmir Valley where the party has some say.

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Jammu and Kashmir has a 90-seat legislative assembly where 74 seats are meant for the general category, while nine and seven seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes, respectively. “A total of 87.09 lakh electors are enrolled to vote in the Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory-the percentage of male and female electors is equal,” said the Commission.