The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday released the first list of 44 candidates for the Jammu and Kashmir assembly polls. Elections to the 90-seat assembly will be conducted in three phases.
The BJP's Central Election Committee met under the leadership of party chief and Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda on Sunday to finalise the candidates list. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah also attended the meeting.
The Jammu and Kashmir assembly polls will be conducted in three phases – on September 18, September 25 and October 1. Polled votes will be counted on October 4. The candidates include 15 for the first phase of polls, 10 for the second phase and 19 for the third phase.
The party has fielded Devender Singh Rana from Nagrota, and Arvind Gupta and Yudhvir Sethi have been fielded from Jammu West and Jammu East respectively.
As per the list, BJP has fielded Kuldeep Raj Dubey to contest from Reasi, Rohit Dubey to contest from Shri Mata Vaishno Devi, and Chowdhary Abdul Ghani to contest from Poonch Haveli.
In the last assembly elections held in 2014 in Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP had won 25 seats. Jammu and Kashmir was a full-fledged state then. The ruling party is making all out efforts to fight the challenge from the Congress-National Conference alliance, especially in the Jammu region, a BJP bastion since 2014.
The BJP is facing a slew of challenges in Jammu―frustration among voters because of the prolonged political vacuum, anger at the new rules affecting local businesses, and discontent rooted in unemployment, inflation and rising electricity bills.
