Amid protests at its Jammu office, the BJP on Monday released two revised lists of candidates for the Assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir in quick succession, after withdrawing the first list that named 44 candidates.
The two revised lists name a total of 16 candidates — 15 in the first revised list and only one in the other — for the first phase of election.
The election to the 90-seat J&K Assembly will be held in three phases – on September 18, 25, and October 1.
The BJP’s initial list had the names of 15 candidates for the first phase, 10 for the second and 19 for the third round of polling. However, the names of candidates for the second and third phases were removed in the first revised list. The second list now has only one name.
Full candidate list issued by BJP
The BJP held a meeting of its Central Election Committee on Sunday night in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On Monday morning, it released the list of 44 candidates, leading to protests by disappointed ticket aspirants at the BJP’s Jammu office. Supporters also raised slogans against the omission of BJP State unit chief Ravinder Raina and senior party leader Kavindra Gupta from that list.
The initial list covered 36 segments in the Jammu region and eight in the Kashmir Valley. It included nearly a dozen prominent leaders, including several former Ministers who joined the party in the last five years.
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Ten former MLAs, including former Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh and former State party chief Sat Paul Sharma, were dropped.
Fresh lists soon
Sources in the party said the fresh lists of candidates for the second and third phase would be out soon. “Today we have released the list for the first-phase seats, along with a list of star campaigners. We will be releasing the rest of the names by and by,” said a source.
This first list includes the name of 29-year-old Shagun Parihar, whose father Anil Parihar and uncle Ajit Parihar, a senior BJP leader, were killed in a terror attack in Kishtwar five years ago
In the Jammu region’s Chenab Valley, the BJP has fielded former Ministers Sunil Sharma (Padder-Nagseni constituency) and Shakti Raj Parihar (Doda-West), former MLA Daleep Singh Parihar (Bhaderwah), Shagun Parihar (Kishtwar), Tariq Keen (Inderwal), Gajay Singh Rana (Doda), Rakesh Thakur (Ramban) and Salim Bhat (Banihal).
Neelam Kumar Langeh, who won the Ramban constituency in the 2014 election, was dropped this time.
In the Kashmir Valley, the BJP has fielded its vice-president Sofi Yousu (Srigufwara-Bijbehara), Syed Showkat Gayoor Andrabi (Pampore), Arshid Bhat (Rajpora), Javed Ahmad Qadri (Shopian), Mohd Rafiq Wani (Anantnag West), Syed Wazahat (Anantnag), Veer Saraf (Shangus-Anantnag East) and Choudhary Roshan Hussain Gujjar (Kokernag-ST).
Published - August 26, 2024 10:53 am IST
