Prime Minister Narendra Modi will kickstart the BJP’s election campaign on Saturday in Jammu and Kashmir by addressing a rally in the Doda region of Jammu.
The rally will be held at the Sports Stadium at noon.
It will be the first visit by a prime minister to Doda in the last 42 years.
Doda, part of the Chenab Valley, which includes Ramban, Doda, and Kishtwar, will go to the polls in the first phase on September 18.
The second phase will be held on September 25, and the third and final phase on October 1. The results will be declared on October 8.
A large crowd is expected to attend the rally. Modi is popular in Jammu - a BJP stronghold - and the party is focusing on the region to win the maximum seats.
The rally will be attended by senior BJP leaders from Jammu and Kashmir, as well as leaders from outside the region.
Modi also campaigned for the BJP during the Lok Sabha polls in Jammu’s Udhampur. The BJP won both Jammu seats—Udhampur and Jammu—against Congress for the third time in a row.
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Other senior BJP leaders who will campaign in Jammu and Kashmir are Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP president J.P. Nadda and Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari.
The Muslim-majority Chenab Valley saw changes in assembly boundaries due to the delimitation completed in 2022. Chenab Valley now has eight assembly constituencies—three in Doda, three in Kishtwar, and two in Ramban.
Delimitation added one new seat each in Doda and Kishtwar districts.
The BJP is aware that winning seats in the Chenab Valley is important for the party to emerge stronger.
In the last assembly election in 2014, Modi’s campaigning in Kishtwar helped the BJP win four of the six seats in Chenab Valley, including both seats in Doda, one in Kishtwar, and one in Ramban. The BJP hopes his rally will improve the party’s chances of repeating its past performance.
The BJP is up against the National Conference-Congress alliance, and the contest is expected to be tough. The party is contesting all 43 assembly seats in the Jammu division. In the last J&K assembly, the BJP had 25 MLAs.
Security has been tightened across Jammu, especially in the Chenab Valley, after the killing of two soldiers in a gunfight with militants in Kishtwar last night. Multi-tier security has been deployed across the twin districts of Doda and Kishtwar, particularly around the venue.