More surprisingly, the BJP later withdrew a list of 44 candidates it had published for the three-phase elections to the 90 Lok Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir.
Later in the day, the party made an agenda shift and released a new list with only 15 candidates for the first phase of the election, unchanged from the initial list.
The first list released, which was quickly withdrawn, contained no ‘A’ list names, apparently leaving out BJP state chief Ravinder Raina, ex-Deputy CMs Nirmal Singh and Kavinder Gupta. But it also didn’t exclude the name of Union minister Dr Jitendra Singh’s brother Devendra Rana, who had recently joined the National Conference.
This first list also included two Kashmiri Pandits, 14 Muslims, several former Congress, National Conference and Panthers party leaders including several PDP leaders who had joined the BJP. The lack of some of the party leaders they thought should have been included led party members to show their bitterness by forcing the party to withdraw the list of three phases and replace it with only the first-phase candidates list.
Jammu and Kashmir will hold an assembly election in three phases starting September 19. The votes will be counted on October 4. This will be the first Assembly election in the union territory since the centre withdrew its special status in 2019.
The forthcoming election is likely to be a triangular battle between the BJP, the PDP, and the NC-Congress combine, though there are issues regarding the distribution of seats between NC and the Congress.
