Sunil Sharma, General Secretary of the Bharatiya Janta Party in Jammu and Kashmir is emerging as one of the top favorites of the party's high command when it comes to implementing the party's road map to secure majority seats in the first phase of polling on September 18.
Out of 24 Assembly segments that are going to polls in the first phase, eight seats fall in the region.
The party has set its eyes on winning the maximum seats in the region. There are three seats each in Doda and Kishtwar while Ramban has two Assembly segments.
In the last assembly elections held in 2014, the BJP had won four seats – Kishtwar, Ramban, Bhaderwah and Doda, while the Congress had got Banihal and Inderwal constituencies.
Two assembly constituencies were added to the region in 2022 after the delimitation exercise following the reorganization of the erstwhile state.
Victory and defeat of BJP candidates are directly linked to his rise in the party hierarchy. Before the Assembly polls were announced Sunil Sharma was seen working hard in the region.
As the campaign is entering in its last leg for the first phase of polling Sunil Sharma and his team of workers have redoubled their efforts to defeat the political adversaries in the fray. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also scheduled to visit the region to address campaign meetings to bolster the party's poll prospects.
In the absence of any other tall leader from the region, Sunil Sharma is fully backed by the organizational machinery on ground zero. He is seen crisscrossing the boundaries of different assembly segments via helicopter in the erstwhile Doda district to supervise the campaign.
During the day Sharma addresses more than half a dozen election meetings and chairs several meetings with party workers and senior leaders camping in the region to boost the party's election campaign.
Sharma is himself contesting from the newly carved-out Padder-Nagseni Assembly seat in Kishtwar.
Sharma who represented Kishtwar in the 2014 Assembly polls is aggressively campaigning in support of BJP candidate Shagun Parihar. He visited Jammu on Sunday to appeal to the voters settled there to visit their native places to cast their votes and ensure the victory of the party candidates in the fray.
The party is banking on a sympathy wave for 29-year-old first-timer, Shagun Parihar whose father Ajit Parihar and uncle Anil Parihar were killed by terrorists in November 2018, to retain the Kishtwar seat.
The alliance partners National Conference and Congress have jointly fielded former DDC Chairperson Pooja Thakur against Sunil Sharma while PDP has fielded Sandesh Kumar in the fray. BJP is facing a rebel candidate Rakesh Goswami and two other independents from the Padder-Nagseni seat.
A senior BJP leader told The Pioneer that by denying tickets to the old guards in the party the Bharatiya Janta Party has attempted to shore up the party's image in the eyes of the electorate.
Leading the pack of young party leaders, who are contesting the Assembly polls for the first time, is party General Secretary and former minister Sunil Sharma. The BJP leader claimed Sunil Sharma is being groomed for the bigger responsibility in the future.
Former BJP minister Shakti Raj Parihar, who lost District Development Council elections in 2020 is contesting from the Doda West constituency, facing a tough challenge from Pardeep Kumar of Congress, Tanveer Hussain of PDP and Abdul Ghani of DPAP.
Former BJP MLA Daleep Singh Parihar is locked in a triangular contest with Congress leader Nadeem Sharief and former IAS officer Sheikh Mehboob Iqbal of the National Conference from Bhaderwah constituency of Doda.
Former minister GM Saroori, who had won the Inderwal seat for three consecutive terms in 2002, 2008 and 2014 elections, is facing National Conference rebel Pyare Lal Sharma, Sheikh Zafarullah of the Congress and BJP’s Tariq Hussain Keen. Former Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president and ex-minister Vikar Rasool Wani, who is eyeing a hat-trick from Banihal constituency, is facing a major challenge from NC’s Sjjad Shaheen and PDP’s Imtiyaz Shan.
