12 left in contest for Udhampur constituency
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 28: The Returning Officer for Jammu-Reasi Parliamentary seat today issued notification for election to the constituency which will go to polls in second phase on April 26.
Two nominations were filed on Day one including Jagdish Raj and Charanjeet Chargotra (covering) candidate (both from BSP).
Returning Officer Sachin Kumar Vaishya, the Deputy Commissioner Jammu issued the notification this morning stating that the candidates can file their nomination papers for contesting Jammu-Poonch Lok Sabha seat till April 4.
He said scrutiny of the nomination papers will take place on April 6 at 11 AM at the Deputy Commissioner’s office at Jammu while the candidates can withdraw their papers till 3 PM on April 8.
As per the notification, nomination papers can be filed by the candidates or their proposers at the Returning Officer’s Office (Deputy Commissioner), Jammu or Assistant Returning Officer, Jammu East (Joint Commissioner-A Jammu Municipal Corporation at Deputy Commissioner’s Office, Wazarat Road Jammu between 11 AM to 3 PM on any day (other than public holiday).
Main contenders-the BJP and Congress have already announced their candidates for Jammu-Reasi Lok Sabha seat. The BJP has retained Jugal Kishore Sharma who has won the seat for two terms in 2014 and 2019. He will be seeking third term. The Congress has again fielded Raman Bhalla from the seat. Bhalla lost to the BJP candidate in 2019 Parliamentary polls.
The National Conference and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) are expected to support the Congress on Jammu-Reasi constituency, like 2019.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has also announced the candidate for Jammu-Poonch seat.
Entire border district of Poonch which was with Jammu Parliamentary constituency in 2019 has been shifted to Anantnag seat along with some Assembly constituencies of Rajouri district. In turn, Reasi district which was part of Udhampur-Doda segment in 2019, has been linked with Jammu seat.
The changes were made by the Delimitation Commission.
Meanwhile, nominations for Udhampur-Doda Parliamentary constituency ended yesterday.
A total of 15 candidates had filed nomination papers including Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and BJP leader Dr Jitendra Singh, Congress candidate Choudhary Lal Singh, former Minister and DPAP leader Ghulam Mohammad Saroori, ex Minister.
However, after scrutiny today, 12 candidates remained in the fray. Nominations of three covering candidates were declared as null and void. They include Prem Nath of BJP, Tilak Raj of BSP and Divya Suraj Partap Singh of Congress.
Those in fray include Dr Jitendra Singh (BJP), Choudhary Lal Singh (Congress), GM Saroori (DPAP), Amit Kumar (BSP), Balwan Singh (Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party-Bhim), Manoj Kumar (Ekam Sanatan Bharat Dal), Dr Pankaj Sharma, Rajesh Manchanda, Sachin Gupta, Swaran Veer Singh Jaral, Mohammad Ali Gujjar and Mehraj Din, all Independents.
The candidates can withdraw their nominations before 3 PM on March 30 in the office of the Returning Officer.
Udhampur seat will go to polls in first phase on April 19.
Dr Jitendra Singh had won the seat for last two consecutive terms of 2014 and 2019 and is now seeking third term.
Lal Singh won the seat in 2004 and 2009 as the Congress candidate.
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