BJP goes for image makeover ahead of Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir

Non-performers were shown the exit door and new faces were given tickets to tackle anti-incumbency

August 26, 2024

J&K Assembly polls: Daughter of an assassinated BJP leader given mandate from Kishtwar

Shedding the baggage of non-performing ministers and party MLAs facing anti-incumbency in their Assembly constituencies, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday announced the names of 44 candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir while dropping names of the former deputy chief minister and senior cabinet ministers from the final list.

Interestingly, the party had to withdraw the first list due to some political compulsions. The amended list was issued again as per which the party released the names of only 15 candidates contesting polls in the first phase of polling on September 18.

The Central Election Committee had earlier gone ahead and given the mandate to all the turncoats who joined the Bharatiya Janta Party after leaving their parent political parties.

Shagun Parihar, the daughter of a deceased BJP leader who was assassinated along with his brother in Kishtwar in 2018, and a retired Police officer Mohal Lal Bhagat have been given a mandate from Kishtwar and Akhnoor Assembly segments respectively.

BJP leader Anil Parihar and his brother Ajeet were shot dead at point-blank range by terrorists at Kishtwar in Jammu division on November 1, 2018.

These names were finalized late Sunday night during the meeting of the Parliamentary board of the party.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP President J P Nadda, BJP General Secretaries G L Santosh, Tarun Chugh, and other members attended the two-hour-long meeting.

The elections to the Legislative Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir will be held in three phases on September 18, 25, and October 1. The counting of votes will take place on October 4.

Many party veterans and 2014 winners such as Kavinder Gupta, Sat Sharma, Sukhnandan Choudhary, Nirmal Singh, Bali Bhagat, etc have been dropped from the list. Now it remains to be seen whether the party will further change the original list of candidates or introduce a few amendments to address the genuine concerns of the party leaders who were opposed to the original list approved by the party high command.

Names of Devender Singh Rana, Sham Lal Sharma, Balwant Singh Mankotia, Surjit Singh Slathia, Murtaza Khan, and Syed Mushtaq Bukhari were also approved as per the first list issued by the BJP.

Due to some compulsions, the party has not been able to build consensus on many seats of discord such as Gandhi Nagar, Nowshera, Rajouri, and a seat each in Kathua and Udhampur.

In Kashmir the party has given the mandate to Arshid Bhat from Rajpora, Javed Ahmad Qadri from Shopian, Mohd. Rafiq Wani from Anantnag West, Adv. Syed Wazahat from Anantnag.

In the last Assembly elections held in 2014, when Jammu and Kashmir was a full-fledged state, the BJP had won 25 seats.

This time the BJP will be facing a tough challenge from the resurgent Congress, which has tied up with the National Conference. So far BJP has not formed any alliance with any other political party. The party is expected to support strong independent candidates on those Assembly seats in Kashmir Valley where the party will not contest the elections.

Of the total 90 Assembly constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir, 74 are reserved for general, nine for Scheduled Tribes, and seven for Scheduled Castes. The Union Territory has over 88 lakh eligible electorates with an equal percentage of males and females, according to the Election Commission.

Scrutiny of the Lok Sabha results revealed the National Conference and the Congress party garnered majority votes from at least 41 out of 90 Assembly segments.

The Bharatiya Janta Party, despite winning both the Lok Sabha seats of the Jammu region, fell short of at least 16 seats to reach the halfway mark of 45 in a 90-member legislature.

The Bharatiya Janta Party polled majority votes from 29 Assembly segments of Jammu-Reasi and Udhampur-Doda Lok Sabha seats.

According to the Election Commission of India, twenty-four seats will go to polling in the first phase on September 18, 26 seats in the second phase on September 25, and 40 seats in the third and final phase on October 1.

Of 24 seats in Phase-1, 16 fall in the Kashmir division and 8 in the Jammu division.

Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.

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