The BJP on Tuesday named 29 more candidates for the Jammu and Kashmir polls, which will hold elections for the first time in a decade, taking to 45 the number of seats for which it has announced its nominees.
On Monday, the party had released a list of 44 candidates, but deleted it soon after. Hours later, it released a fresh list with only names of 15 candidates picked for the first phase of the election. Later in the day, another list with just one name was released.
The party’s latest list has 10 candidates for the second phase of polls and 19 for the third phase.
It has made one change from the now-rescinded list, as it has named Baldev Raj Sharma from Shri Mata Vaishno Devi seat in place of Rohit Dubey.
It has fielded Devender Singh Rana from Nagrota and named Satish Sharma as its candidate from Billawar, which was represented by former deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh in the last assembly polls held in 2014.
The BJP has so far not named its nominee for Nowshera, which was represented in 2014 by its current state president Ravinder Raina, and Gandhinagar, from where its another senior leader and former deputy chief minister Kavinder Gupta was elected in the last polls.
Rival parties, the Congress and National Conference, on Monday reached a seat-sharing deal. The regional NC will contest the majority of seats – 51 – and the Congress will contest 32.
Voting for the region’s 90-member assembly will be staggered over three stages between September 18 and October 1. Votes will be counted in October 4.
The last elections in the region were held in 2014, when the BJP entered into a ruling coalition with Mehbooba Mufti-led the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The assembly was dissolved in 2018 after the BJP pulled out and the coalition collapsed.
In 2019, the Centre cancelled the partial autonomy of the region, turning it into a federally administered “union territory”.
That change stalled planned polls, and since then there have been no local-level lawmakers.
