High-profile campaign ends on 11 Jammu segments
*BJP in fray on all seats, NC 6, Cong 5
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Sept 23: High-profile campaigning in 11 Assembly constituencies spread over three districts of Rajouri, Poonch and Reasi in Jammu division, ended this evening and fate of bigwigs including many former Ministers and legislators will be decided in second phase of polling scheduled to be held on September 25.
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BJP UT chief Ravinder Raina (Nowshera), former Ministers including Zulfkar Choudhary (Budhal), Jugal Kishore Sharma (Shri Mata Vaishno Devi), Syed Mushtaq Ahmed Bukhari (Surankote), Shabir Khan (Thannamandi) and Aijaz Khan (Gulabgarh); and ex legislators Vibodh Gupta (Rajouri), Baldev Sharma (Katra), Javed Rana and Murtaza Khan (both Mendhar), Choudhary Qamar (Thannamandi), Surinder Choudhary (Nowshera), Aijaz Jan and Shah Mohammad Tantray (both Poonch), Mumtaz Khan (Reasi) and Choudhary Akram (Surankote) and many other prominent faces including NC’s Javed Choudhary (Budhal) are in fray for second phase in the Jammu division.
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For BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a massive rally at Katra, the base camp of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Ji shrine on September 19 covering all three Assembly segments of Reasi district. Union Home Minister Amit Shah addressed five election rallies in Rajouri and Poonch districts on September 21 and 22 while Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held three rallies in the twin border districts.
Union Minister for Road Traffic and Highways Nitin Gadkari too addressed a rally at Budhal.
Leader of Opposition and senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi today held a rally in Surankote along with NC president Dr Farooq Abdullah. Rahul was the only prominent Congress leader to hold rally in the second phase of seats in Jammu division. For NC, Farooq and Omar Abdullah and for PDP, Mehbooba Mufti addressed rallies in different Assembly constituencies of Rajouri and Poonch districts.
Rajouri, Poonch and Reasi districts had 10 Assembly constituencies in 2014 as against 11 now as one seat (Thannamandi) was created after delimitation of the segments.
Of 10 seats, BJP, Congress and PDP held three each while NC had won lone seat of Mendhar in 2014 Assembly polls.
Reasi, Nowshera and Kalakote seats had gone to the BJP while Gool-Arnas, Gulabgarh and Surankote were bagged by the Congress. Poonch, Budhal and Rajouri seats were captured by the PDP.
The BJP has been contesting all 11 seats while NC and Congress as per the seat-sharing agreement area in fray on six and five seats respectively. PDP has also fielded candidates on almost all seats. The BSP is in the race on many segments.
Interesting electoral battles are being witnessed in Budhal between maternal uncle (Zulfkar Choudhary of BJP) and nephew (Javed Choudhary of NC); and Sunderbani-Kalakote segment between uncle (Thakur Randhir Singh of BJP) and nephew (Thakur Yasuvardhan Singh of NC). Randhir is brother and Yasuvardhan is son of former legislator and prominent NC leader late Thakur Rashpal Singh. Zulfkar won the seat in 2008 and 2004 on PDP mandate and served as Minister. However, he switched over to the BJP ahead of the Assembly elections.
Nowshera segment where former BJP UT chief Ravinder Raina is in the race will witness replica of 2014 political fight between him and Surinder Choudhary. Raina won the seat comfortably then. However, Choudhary has switched over to NC this time while he was PDP candidate in 2014. BSP’s Manohar Singh, a Member of the DDC is also in the fray.
In another high-profile seat of Rajouri, BJP general secretary Vibodh Gupta is facing Iftikhar Ahmed (Congress) and Mian Mahfooz, a prominent spiritual leader among others. In 2014, Qamar Choudhary of PDP won Rajouri seat. However, Qamar Choudhary and Shabir Khan (Congress) have this time shifted to newly created Thannamandi segment They are facing Iqbal Malik, a retired officer and DDC member, who is the BJP candidate and Muzaffar Ahmed Khan, an Independent and NC rebel, who had taken voluntary retirement as the Judge.
In Surankote Assembly constituency of Poonch district, Mushtaq Ahmed Bukhari, a two-time MLA and former Minister is in the race as the BJP nominee with Shahnawaz Choudhary of Congress, Choudhary Akram, who won the seat in 2014 as Congress MLA, as an Independent candidate and PDP’s Javid Iqbal among others.
In Poonch-Haveli seat, Shah Mohammad Tantray, who emerged victorious in 2014 on the PDP mandate, is in the fray this time as Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party nominee facing Aijaz Jan of NC, the winner of 2008 election, Choudhary Abdul Gani of BJP and Shamim Ganai (PDP) among others.
In Mendhar constituency of Poonch contest is among among Javed Rana, a two-time MLA from NC, Murtaza Khan of BJP and Nadeem Khan son of former MLA Rafeeq Khan of PDP besides others.
In Reasi district, newly created Shri Mata Vaishno Devi seat is witnessing triangular contest. Main contenders include former Minister Jugal Kishore Sharma (Independent), Baldev Sharma (BJP) and Bhupinder Jamwal (Congress).
In Reasi constituency, the fight appears to be direct between BJP’s Kuldeep Raj Dubey and Congress nominee Mumtaz Khan. Mumtaz had in 2014 won Gulabgarh seat and later joined JKAP. He recently returned to the Congress and was given mandate by the party.
In Gulabgarh, former Minister Aijaz Khan is in the fray as an Independent candidate facing Engineer Khursheed (NC) and Akram Khan (BJP) among others. Aijaz is three-time MLA from Gool-Arnas and brother of Mumtaz Khan.
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