Jammu, Sept 02: The BJP Monday released its fourth list of six candidates for the Jammu and Kashmir assembly polls, fielding its union territory unit president Ravinder Raina from Nowshera in the Jammu region.
With the fresh list, the party has so far named 51 candidates, including 14 for the Kashmir Valley, where the BJP is yet to open its account in assembly elections.
The 47-year-old Raina, who won from Nowshera in Rajouri district in the 2014 polls too, has been fielded again from his home constituency.
Raina, who took over as the party president in Jammu and Kashmir in May 2018, thanked the party for reposing faith in him and expressed confidence of winning a majority of the seats in the Union Territory to form the next government.
“The BJP’s popularity has grown manifold over the years under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who restored peace and normalcy in J-K besides ensuring development and justice to every section of the society in the past 10 years,” he told PTI.
“We will win the elections to form our own government with the first chief minister from the saffron party,” he said.
Raina’s main rival from the seat is former MLC Surinder Choudhary who joined the National Conference in July 2023 after more than a year with the BJP.
The other names in the list are: former MLC Vibodh Gupta from Rajouri (ST) in the Jammu region; and Aijaiz Hussain (Lal Chowk), Arif Raja (Eidgah), Ali Mohammad Mir (Khansahib) and Zahid Hussain (Chrar-e-Sharief) from the Kashmir Valley.
The list was released on the approval of the party’s central election committee for the second phase of elections.
The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, which has a 90-member assembly, is going to polls in three phases on September 18, 25 and October 1.
This will be the first assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir since the revocation of Article 370 of the Constitution in August 2019 and the state’s division in two union territories.
The BJP released the first list of 15 candidates followed by another list of one candidate on August 26 for the first phase of elections. The BJP faced internal rumblings when it released the list.
The party trimmed the initial first list of 44 to 16 following protests by some party cadre who alleged that “parachute candidates” were favoured over dedicated workers.
A group of disgruntled members protested at the BJP headquarters in Jammu.
Despite resentment shown by some party leaders over selection of candidates from Jammu north, Jammu east, Padder-Nagseni, Ramban, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi, Chhamb and Akhnoor segments, the BJP next day released its revised list of 29 nominees – 10 for second phase and 19 for the third phase — without making any major changes except replacing one contestant.
The party named former MLA Baldev Raj Sharma from Shri Mata Vaishno Devi seat in place of Rohit Dubey while all other names remained the same for the same set of constituencies.
At least five BJP leaders resigned from the party and two of them already filed their nomination papers from two constituencies — Ramban and Padder-Nagseni — which along with 22 other segments are going to polls in the first phase.
In a damage control exercise, the party mobilised several top leaders, including union ministers, to reach out to the disgruntled leaders.
