The revised list that the BJP put out had names of candidates for 16 of the 24 Assembly seats voting in the first phase on September 18…reports Asian Lite News
The BJP’S election campaign for Jammu and Kashmir got off to a less than happy start Monday when the party had to withdraw its first list of candidates within hours, reportedly after protests by old-timers over being ignored in favour of turncoats.
The revised list that the BJP put out had names of candidates for 16 of the 24 Assembly seats voting in the first phase on September 18. The eight constituencies missing from the list are all in South Kashmir, traditionally a militant hot bed. The filing of nominations for this phase ends Tuesday.
The party’s previous list had 44 names, for constituencies across the three phases in which voting is being held in J&K. The BJP then announced it was withdrawing the list, and deleted it from all its official channels.
There was no word from the BJP on why the previous list was withdrawn. However, sources said anger among supporters of the old guard forced the party to go back to the drawing board.
In Jammu, BJP workers held protests at the party office and spoke openly about their disappointment. In the Valley, long-time BJP workers accused the party of ignoring leaders who had given it “a foothold” in Kashmir, when “nobody was ready to be associated with it”. Minha Lateef, the BJP’s lone District Development Council (DDC) member in Pulwama, South Kashmir, announced her resignation after the party announced Syed Showkat Gayoor Andrabi as its candidate for the Pampore constituency in Pulwama.
With the nomination window closing, BJP leaders in Kashmir are apprehensive that the party might not contest the eight seats voting in the first phase for which it did not name candidates Monday. These eight constituencies include all the three seats in South Kashmir’s Kulgam, two seats in Anantnag and Pulwama each, and the Zainpora seat of Shopian.
The BJP, which did not field candidates in any of the three Kashmir constituencies in the Lok Sabha elections, had said it would contest all the Assembly seats in J&K. So far, barring one name, all the candidates it has announced for the Valley seats are new faces.
The BJP’s initial list of 44 suggested that at least three former Cabinet ministers – including ex-deputy chief ministers Nirmal Sharma and Kavinder Gupta – would not be fielded by the party this time.
Nirmal Singh won the 2014 Assembly elections from Billawar constituency of Jammu. The original BJP list named Satish Sharma as the candidate from Billawar.
Kavinder Gupta, also a former Speaker, won in 2014 from Gandhi Nagar in Jammu, defeating Congress stalwart Raman Bhalla. The constituency is named R S Pora-Jammu South seat now, after delimitation, and the party’s original list had Narinder Singh Raina as its candidate from the seat.
The third former member of the Council of Ministers missing from the BJP’s first list was Sat Paul Sharma, also a former state chief of the party, who won in 2014 from Jammu West. The BJP has fielded Arvind Gupta for the Jammu West seat.
Modi to lead BJP’s assembly election campaign
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lead the BJP’s campaign in the upcoming assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, the first such democratic exercise after the erstwhile state was downgraded to Union Territory in August 2019.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP national president J P Nadda and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath were also included in the list of 40 star campaigners submitted by the party to the Election Commission for the first phase of assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, Manohar Lal Khattar, G Kishan Reddy, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Jitendra Singh and former union ministers Anurag Thakur and Smriti Irani and Gen (Retd.) V K Singh besides Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma and former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jai Ram Thakur are other prominent faces who will visit Jammu and Kashmir during the campaigning.
The three-phased assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir are scheduled for September 18, 25 and October 1. The counting of votes will be taken up on October 4.
In a letter addressed to the Election Commission, BJP national general secretary and in-charge headquarters Arun Singh said the list of the 40 star campaigners of the party may be treated as valid for the remaining phases unless we forward an amended list within the prescribed time limit.
The list also included former BJP general secretary and recently appointed election incharge for Jammu and Kashmir Ram Madhav, party national general secretary incharge Jammu and Kashmir Tarun Chugh, Jammu and Kashmir BJP chief Ravinder Raina, Member of Parliament Jugal Kishore Sharma, Rajya Sabha member Ghulam Ali Khatana, General secretary (organization) Ashok Kaul and Jammu and Kashmir BJP vice president Sofi Yousuf.
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