The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced its first list of 44 candidates for the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections on Monday.
The BJP has fielded Syed Wazahat from Anantnag, Kuldeep Raj Dubey from Reasi, and Gajay Singh Rana from Doda. Arshid Bhat will contest from Rajpora, and Sushri Shagun Parihar from Kishtwar. Pawan Gupta is set to contest from Udhampur West, Dr. Devinder Kumar Maniyal from Ramgarh (SC), and Mohan Lal Bhagat from Akhnoor. Rohit Dubey will contest from Shri Mata Vaishno Devi, and Chowdhary Abdul Ghani from Poonch Haveli.
The candidate list was released following a meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party Central Election Committee, chaired by JP Nadda. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah were also present at the meeting.
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Polling in Jammu and Kashmir will take place in three phases: September 18, September 25, and October 1, with vote counting scheduled for October 4, according to the Election Commission of India. The state has a total of 90 assembly constituencies, with 7 reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and 9 for Scheduled Tribes (STs). Jammu and Kashmir has 8.806 million eligible voters.
In the previous assembly elections, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won 28 seats, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 25 seats, the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (NC) secured 15 seats, and the Congress won 12 seats.
The PDP and BJP formed a coalition government led by Mufti Mohammed Sayeed. However, in 2018, the BJP withdrew its support from the alliance after Mehbooba Mufti succeeded Mufti Mohammed Sayeed following his demise.
These are the first assembly elections to be held in Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370.
(WITH INPUTS FROM ANI)
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