Jammu & Kashmir Assembly Election: BJP's Revised List For Polling Out, 15 Candidates In Fray For First Phase

BJP today released the list of 44 candidates for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections, only to withdraw later.

The saffron party has now brought out a revised list now that includes only 15 candidates for the first phase of polling out of the three phases.

The voting will be held on September 19, 25, and October 1, with results due on October 4.

The initial list, which caused a stir, notably excluded prominent figures like Jammu and Kashmir BJP president Ravinder Raina, and former Deputy Chief Ministers Nirmal Singh and Kavinder Gupta.

It also included Devendra Rana, the brother of Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh, who recently joined the BJP from the National Conference.

The initial list also featured 14 Muslim and 2 Kashmiri Pandit candidates, along with several former Congress, National Conference, PDP, and Panthers Party leaders who had recently joined the BJP.

The backlash over key omissions and other issues likely prompted the party to retract the list and release a revised version with only the first-phase candidates.

The upcoming Assembly election is the first since Jammu and Kashmir lost its special status and was split into two Union Territories in 2019.

The 2014 elections saw a strong performance from the BJP, which won 25 seats, while the PDP emerged as the largest party with 28 seats.

The National Conference secured 15 seats, and the Congress won 12. The BJP and PDP formed an alliance government after the 2014 election.

This election is expected to be a three-way contest among the BJP, PDP, and the National Conference-Congress alliance.

However, the Congress and National Conference are still negotiating seat-sharing, with top Congress leaders sent to Srinagar to resolve the issues. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi have already met with National Conference leaders to formalize the alliance.

BJP general secretary Tarun Chugh has dismissed the Congress-National Conference alliance as a fragile partnership doomed to fail, predicting a defeat for the coalition.