After witnessing a close contest in the first round of polling in the Chenab Valley region, the battleground in the Jammu province has shifted to the Pir Panjal region comprising the twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch. Voting is scheduled to take place on eight assembly segments during the second round of polling on September 25.

For the first time, nine seats out of 90 Assembly segments have been reserved for the Scheduled Tribes (STs) following the delimitation of constituencies in 2022.

Out of these 9, six seats fall in the Jammu region and three in Kashmir valley. Three seats are located in the frontier district of Rajouri, two in Poonch, and one seat is reserved in the Gulabgarh area of the Reasi district of the Jammu region.

The six ST seats at stake in the current polls are Rajouri, Budhal, Thannamandi, Surankote, Mendhar, and Gulabgarh.

Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) led Union government had also granted the Scheduled Tribe status to the Pahari community hoping to reap rich political dividends.

The Bharatiya Janta Party, which won two seats from the Rajouri district in the 2014 Assembly elections is aiming to further improve its tally.

On the other hand, the alliance partners Congress and the National Conference are upbeat and hoping to repeat their performance in the recent Lok Sabha polls.

The alliance partners won the Anantnag Rajouri Lok Sabha seat with a thumping majority garnering the majority of votes of the Gujjar Bakerwal and Pahari communities.

In the absence of a BJP candidate in the fray, the PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti became the runner-up and the BJP-supported APNI party candidate stood third in the race.

 The party has fielded former J&K BJP Chief Ravinder Raina from the Nowshera Assembly segment. He is challenged by the National Conference candidate Surinder Choudhary. Raina had defeated the same candidate by a margin of over 10,000 votes. In 2014, Surinder contested the seat on the PDP ticket. In between he joined the BJP but soon parted ways. He is running against the same rival candidate and giving a tough fight on ground zero.

The BJP has already intensified its campaigning in the region. Union Home Minister Amit Shah is scheduled to address a series of public meetings in support of party candidates during his two-day-long visit to the Jammu region. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari also addressed a campaign meeting in Budhal in support of the party candidate Choudhary Zulfikar Ali on Thursday.

In Rajouri, the BJP has fielded Vibodh Kumar Gupta, a Pahari Hindu. The Congress has fielded state party general secretary Iftkar Ahmed, a Pahari Muslim. The PDP has fielded Tasadiq Hussain, the only Gujjar candidate in the race. Rival candidates of the BJP are hoping for a vertical split in votes on religious lines to emerge victorious.