Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections 2024: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has only fielded 16 candidates of the 24 seats going to poll in the first phase of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections on September 18. This includes 16 seats from the Kashmir Valley and 8 seats in Jammu.
Out of the 16 seats in the Kashmir Valley, the party has only fielded candidates in eight and the deadline for filing nominations was August 27. These seats, where the BJP has not fielded any candidates, are located in South Kashmir. The seats include Tral, Pulwama, Zainapora, DH Pora, Kulgam, Devsar, Dooru, and Pahalgam.
Here's a complete list of BJP candidates for Phase 1
S.No | Constituencies | Candidates |
1. | Pampore | Er. Syed Showkat Gayoor Andrabi |
2. | Tral | Not fielded any candidate |
3. | Pulwama | Not fielded any candidate |
4. | Rajpora | Arshid Bhat |
5. | Zainapora | Not fielded any candidate |
6. | Shopian | Jawed Ahmad Qadri |
7. | DH Pora | Not fielded any candidate |
8. | Kulgam | Not fielded any candidate |
9. | Devsar | Not fielded any candidate |
10. | Dooru | Not fielded any candidate |
11. | Kokernag (ST) | Choudhary Roshan Hussain Gujjar |
12. | Anantnag West | Mohd Rafiq Wani |
13. | Anantnag | Adv. Syed Wazahat |
14. | Srigufwara-Bijbehara | Sofi Yousuf |
15. | Shangus Anantnag East | Veer Saraf |
16. | Pahalgam | Not fielded any candidate |
17. | Inderwal | Tariq Keen |
18. | Kishtwar | Shagun Parihar |
19. | Padder – Nagseni | Sunil Sharma |
20. | Bhadarwah | Daleep Singh Parihar |
21. | Doda | Gajay Singh Rana |
22. | Doda West | Shakti Raj Parihar |
23. | Ramban | Rakesh Thakur |
24. | Banihal | Salim Bhat |
The BJP has announced the names of 45 candidates for the upcoming three-phase elections in Jammu and Kashmir. Additional names for the second and third phases are expected to be released soon. Out of the 90 seats in the Union Territory, Kashmir has 47 seats, there are 43 seats in Jammu.
Earlier on August 26, the BJP withdrew its first list of 44 candidates for the Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections soon after releasing it. The list had 15 for the first phase of polls, 10 for the second phase and 19 for the third phase.
Jammu and Kashmir polls
Jammu and Kashmir will go to Assembly Elections on September 18, 25, and October 1. The results of the polls will be out on October 8. Significantly, the 2024 polls will be the first elections in the valley since provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution were abrogated and the erstwhile state was divided into two Union Territories in 2019.
In the last assembly elections in 2014, the BJP had won 25 seats ands this time, it is making all out efforts to fend off the challenge from a resurgent Congress, which has made alliance with the National Conference.