With the completion of the scrutiny of the nomination papers for the first phase of the polling on September 18, the electioneering in Jammu and Kashmir has intensified. Different political parties have stepped up efforts to reach out to the voters to win their support. Out of 24 Assembly seats going to the polls in the first phase, 16 fall in the Kashmir valley and eight in the erstwhile Doda district of Jammu province.
According to the Election Commission of India, 64 candidates are left in the fray for eight seats in Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban districts. They include 27 in Doda district, 22 in Kishtwar and 15 in Ramban district.
In 2014, the BJP had won four Assembly segments of Kishtwar, Doda, Bhaderwah and Ramban while two Assembly segments of Inderwal and Banihal were won by the Congress party candidates in the region.
This time, the BJP will have to walk a tightrope to cross the hurdles before hitting the victory milestone. On the other hand, alliance partners Congress and the National Conference are trying their level best to put up a united fight to defeat the BJP. The candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party are also gearing up to improve their past performance while the rebel candidate of the Democratic Progressive Azad Party, GM Saroori, who won the Inderwal seat in 2014, is also aiming to retain the seat despite facing a credibility crisis after failing to get the mandate from the DPAP.
The Kishtwar Assembly segment is turning out to be the real battleground as it is witnessing the most interesting contest in the poll arena.
Kishtwar is set to witness a triangular fight between BJP's Shagun Parihar, Sajjad Kitchloo of the National Conference and Firdous Tak of PDP.
Shagun Parihar is the daughter of Ajeet Parihar, the elder brother of BJP leader Anil Parihar. Both the brothers were killed by terrorists in November 2018. While the BJP is hoping to retain the seat. Kitchloo, on the other hand, is aiming to wrest the seat from the BJP. He remained a two-time MLA in 2002 and 2008 but lost to BJP's Sunil Sharma in 2014. After delimitation, Sharma has shifted to the newly created seat of Paddar-Nagseni.
A straight contest is on the cards between Sunil Sharma and NC's Pooja Thakur, the sitting chairperson of District Development Council (DDC) Kishtwar though the PDP has also fielded Sandesh Kumar. Rakesh Goswami, a BJP rebel is also in the fray and he refused to withdraw on the last date of filing of nomination papers.
The Inderwal Assembly segment in Kishtwar is also gearing up for the multi-corner contest.
Three-time MLA and former Minister GM Saroori is contesting the election as an Independent candidate after being denied the mandate by Azad's DPAP. Saroori is facing Sheikh Zafarullah of Congress, Tariq Hussain Keen (BJP), Nasir Ahmed Sheikh (PDP) and National Conference rebel Pyare Lal Sharma.
Saroori scored a hat-trick from the Inderwal seat by winning Assembly polls of 2002, 2008 and 2014 in a row.
On the Bhaderwah seat, the contest is expected to be triangular among 2014 BJP MLA Daleep Singh Parihar, Nadeem Sharief (Congress) and Sheikh Mehboob Iqbal (NC). Vikram Rathore of Jammu Kashmir Apni Party and Meenakshi Bhagat of BSP are also in the fray.
Nadeem Sharief is the son of Mohammad Sharief Niaz, who won the Bhaderwah seat in 2002 for the Congress and was made the Cabinet Minister. Later, Niaz quit the seat and Ghulam Nabi Azad won it in the by-poll. NC's Mehboob Iqbal is a retired IAS officer.
BJP's 2014 MLA and former Minister Shakti Raj Parihar is facing Pardeep Kumar (Congress), Tanveer Hussain (PDP) and Abdul Ghani (DPAP) among others in the multi-cornered contest from the newly created seat of Doda West.
Doda Assembly segment also is facing a multi-cornered contest with two former Ministers Khalid Najib Suhrawardhy (NC) and Abdul Mujeed Wani (DPAP) in the fray along with Gajay Singh Rana (BJP), Riaz Ahmed (Congress) and the PDP.
Suhrawardhy won the seat in a by-election after the death of his father and NC strongman Attaullah Suhrawardhy. However, he failed to retain it in 2002 when Majid Wani won the seat as an Independent candidate and in 2008 as the Congress candidate. BJP's Shakti Parihar wrested the seat in 2014.
Parihar this time has shifted to the newly created seat of Doda West. He had lost the District Development Council election from two seats in Doda in 2020.
In Ramban district, eight candidates are now left in the fray but the main contest is expected to be among Rakesh Singh Thakur (BJP), Arjun Singh Raju (NC) and Suraj Singh Parihar, a BJP rebel contesting the election as an Independent candidate.
Banihal constituency in Ramban district is also expected to witness a four-cornered contest among Vikar Rasool Wani, a two-time MLA of Congress, Sajjad Shaheen (National Conference), Mohammad Saleem Bhat (BJP) and Imtiyaz Shan (PDP).
