Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, Aug 25: The list of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates for Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections will be released by tomorrow afternoon.
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This was decided in party’s National Election Committee (NEC) meeting held in Union Capital this evening under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
According to party sources, the meeting finalised the names of candidates to be fielded for both J&K and Haryana Assembly elections but before its announcement the party may review it once again tomorrow and then release it to media. The names of probable candidates to be fielded in the UT of J&K were discussed in detail in the meeting by the members of Election Committee out of which it finalised the prospective candidates from the UT of J&K, sources added.
They said while party may field candidates for all 43 Assembly segments of Jammu region, it may contest some selective seats in Kashmir valley leaving others for smaller groups and Independents.
Sources said the meeting was among others attended by party national president and Union Health Minister J P Nadda, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP national general secretary (organisation) B L Santosh and other members of Central Election Committee besides Union Minister of Coal and Mines and election Incharge J&K G Kishan Reddy, Union Minister Sarbananda Sonawal, Union Minister, Dr Jitendra Singh, Party election in charge J&K Ram Madhav, BJP general secretary Incharge J&K and Ladakh UTs Tarun Chugh, MPs from J&K Jugal Kishore Sharma and Gulam Ali Khatana, national secretary of the party, Narinder Singh, co-Incharge J&K Ashish Sood, BJP JK UT president Ravinder Raina, party general secretary (Org), Ashok Koul senior leader Devender Singh Rana etc.
Sources said the meeting finalised the list of party candidates both for J&K and Haryana which are going to polls in September and October. Earlier, the meeting was scheduled to take place in the afternoon but due to preoccupation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with other programmes it was held late in the evening at 7-45 pm and lasted over two hours.
Earlier, the Election Committee had met in Union Capital on August 23 also but as the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi was on the tour of Poland and Ukraine it could not finalise the candidates. The meeting was rescheduled for today after PM returned from his foreign tour yesterday, sources said.
They said in today’s meeting Prime Minister took total feedback from the leaders of J&K and election Incharges of the UT on the probable candidates and after thorough discussion the names were finalised by the Committee.
Though BJP has ruled out any alliance with any political party in the UT and decided to fight the ensuing Assembly poll on its own but it may rope in some smaller political groups and Independents in Kashmir valley for seat sharing. The party senior leader and its ex general secretary, Ram Madhav who is considered to be the poll strategist was appointed as election Incharge of J&K by the Party High Command soon after the announcement of Assembly elections for the UT by the Election Commission of India recently.
Madhav after taking over as Party’s election Incharge of the UT, next day visited J&K and in his first day visit to Kashmir he met leaders of various smaller groups and Independents and discussed the poll strategy and seat adjustment with them, sources said.
It may be recalled that the first phase of three tier Assembly elections for 16 seats in South Kashmir and eight seats in three districts of Jammu region including Doda, Ramban and Kishtwar will be held on September 18. The last date for filing the nomination papers for first phase is August 27.
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