BJP Expected to Contest Five Seats in North Kashmir: Sources
Suhail Khan
SRINAGAR, Aug 12: As Assembly elections are set to take place in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir after a long time, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to fight on five assembly seats from the northern region of Kashmir.
Sources close to the top BJP leadership informed Kashmir Despatch that so far the party has shown interest in contesting from five assembly seats in the northern region of Kashmir. The list may be expanded once the election dates are announced.
The five seats include Sopore, a town that has previously boycotted elections. However, this time, BJP is set to contest from Sopore with its own candidate.
Sources said that apart from Sopore, the party has also decided to field candidates in Baramulla, Gurez, Uri, and Tangdar. The potential BJP candidates for these five seats are Anwar Khan (Baramulla), Raja Waqar (Uri), Reyaz Ahmad (Sopore), Faqeer Mohammad Khan (Gurez), and Rafeeq Ahmad (Tangdar).
Pertinently, the recent visit of the Election Commission team was the first major exercise for preparing the grounds for holding the maiden Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution on August 5, 2019.
The visit of the three-member EC team led by Kumar comes ahead of the September 30 deadline given by the Supreme Court for the completion of Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
However, opposition parties, including the National Conference and Congress, have raised concerns that the government might delay the elections in Jammu and Kashmir due to the recent surge in terror attacks.
Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Sunday also reiterated that the government’s stance on assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir has remained “unchanged” since the abrogation of Article 370 and expressed hope that the Election Commission will soon declare the polling dates. He emphasized that the administration is ready to hold elections in the union territory, expressing confidence that they will be “peaceful and fair”.
