BJP announces three candidates for J&K Rajya Sabha elections

Jammu: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on Sunday, announced its list of three candidates for the vacant Rajya Sabha seats from Jammu and Kashmir, for which elections will be held on October 24.

With the announcement, the BJP will be fighting for three out of the four Rajya Sabha seats from the union territory.

The party has decided to field its UT president, Sat Pal Sharma, and leaders Rakesh Mahajan and Ghulam Mohammed Mir.

Of the four Rajya Sabha seats, the BJP has an edge on the fourth seat for which the party has fielded Sat Sharma.

According to the electoral college vote division, the BJP has 28 votes while the National Conference (NC) alliance has 24 votes for the fourth Rajya Sabha seat.

The NC has already announced its three candidates for the three Rajya Sabha seats in which it has an edge over the BJP.

The NC General Secretary, Ali Mohammad Sagar and Nasir Aslam Wani, advisor to the Chief Minister, told reporters that the party has decided to field Chowdhary Mohammad Ramzan, Sajad Kichloo and Shammi Oberoi for the seats.

The ruling party in the UT has offered the 4th seat to the Congress to contest. Since the BJP has a clear edge over the NC-Congress alliance on the 4th seat, Congress has refused to field its candidate for this ‘risky’ seat.

Sources said talks are on with the NC leadership to persuade it to offer a ‘safe’ seat to the Congress. It is highly unlikely that the NC would leave any of the three seats for which the party has already announced its candidates.

This has resulted in a deadlock on the Rajya Sabha seat sharing between the NC and the Congress.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) announced polls for the four Rajya Sabha seats in J&K on September 24 after more than four years, as the UT did not have a Legislative Assembly after February 2021.

In its statement, the ECI said, “All four above-mentioned seats are lying vacant since the expiration of the term of office of sitting members due to non-availability of the required electorate to conduct the said elections at the time of occurrence of said vacancies. Consequent upon the constitution of the State Legislative Assembly of UT of Jammu & Kashmir, there is a requirement for the electorate to conduct the Biennial Elections to the Council of States from UT of Jammu & Kashmir.”

The last date for filing nomination papers for the four Rajya Sabha seats is Monday. Voting would be held on October 24.

IANS