J-K Assembly Polls: BJP releases revised list, names 15 candidates for phase 1 voting in UT

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released on Monday a revised list of candidates for 15 seats for the upcoming assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir.  The list comes minutes after the BJP withdrew its first list of 44 candidates for all three phases of voting in the UT.

The new list includes names of candidates for just first phase of polling in the Union Territory scheduled on September 18.  It covers seven seats in Kashmir and eight seats in Jammu division of the UT.

As many as 24 seats are voting in the first phase of elections. The other two rounds of voting are scheduled for September 25 and October 1. The votes will be counted on October 4.

“The names for the second and third phase of polls carried in an earlier list should not be considered,” the BJP said.

The prominent names released today include Syed Showkat Andrabi from Pampore, Arshid Bhat from Rajpora, Javed Qadri from Shopian, Syed Wazahat from Anantnag, Salim Bhat from Banihal, Gajay Rana from Doda and Veer Saraf from Shangus-Anantnag East seat.

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The three-phase polling will be the shortest polling period in any assembly elections held in Jammu and Kashmir since 2002 polls. 

In 2002, the polls were held in four phases, in 2008 the election were held in seven phases while in 2014 the polling for assembly elections was held in five phases. 

The Last Elections

In the 2014 Assembly polls, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) emerged as the single-largest party with 28 seats. All the seats that PDP won came from Kashmir valley. The BJP finished second with 25 seats. All seats that the BJP won came from Jammu.

The PDP led by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed decided to tie up with the BJP in an unheard-of alliance between the two parties with ideologies poles apart.

The NC had won 15 seats, while the Congress won 12 seats in 2014 polls. The remaining seats went to other parties. This was the last assembly election before the territory’s special status under Article 370 was revoked and Ladakh separated as Union Territory in 2019

The PDP-BJP government, however, could not last the full 6-year term as BJP withdrew its support to former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2018. Since then, the erstwhile state has been under central rule.