BJP Names 15 Candidates For Phase-1 Of J&K Assembly Polls After Initial Withdrawal

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has released a revised list of 15 candidates for the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections, following the withdrawal of its initial candidate list. 

Key among the candidates in the newly announced list is Er. Syed Showkat Gayoor Andrabi from Pampore. In Rajpora, the party has fielded Shri Arshid Bhat, while Shri Javed Ahmad Qadri has been named the candidate for Shopian. For Anantnag West, the BJP has chosen Mohd. Rafiq Wani, and Adv. Syed Wazahat will contest from Anantnag. 

BJP releases amended list of 15 candidates for upcoming J&K Assembly elections pic.twitter.com/yUzU6lYrTB — ANI (@ANI) August 26, 2024

Sofi Yousuf has been chosen to contest from Bijbehara, while Veer Saraf will represent the party in Shangus-Anantnag East. Tariq Keen has been nominated for Inderwal, and Shagun Parihar for Kishtwar. The Padder-Naseni seat will be contested by Sunil Sharma, with Daleep Singh Parihar standing for Bhadarwah. Gajay Rana and Shakti Parihar are both slated to compete for the Doda constituency, Rakesh Thakur for Ramban, and Salim Bhat for Banihal.

Meanwhile, the pre-poll alliance between the National Conference (NC) and Congress for the upcoming elections has encountered a significant hurdle over seat-sharing arrangements. According to insiders, the Congress party is demanding several key constituencies that the National Conference is reluctant to concede.

In a bid to resolve the impasse, Congress dispatched senior leader K C Venugopal to Srinagar earlier today. He is set to join Salman Khurshid, another prominent Congress leader, who has been in the Kashmir Valley for the past few days to negotiate the terms of the alliance. Both Venugopal and Khurshid are scheduled to meet with Omar Abdullah and other top NC leaders at his residence later today to hammer out a final agreement on the contentious seat-sharing issues.