BJP issues first list of 45 candidates for Kashmir polls

The Bharatiya Janata Party Sunday issued the first list of 45 candidates for the Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections.

The names were finalised at a meeting of the central election committee in New Delhi, chaired by Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah and attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in addition to all other members of the committee.

In a surprise move, the BJP has dropped eight out of its 11 sitting legislators while most candidates fielded by the party are new faces.

Prominent among those axed are Ashok Khajuria, Chaman Lal Gupta, Baldev Raj Sharma, Master Lal Chand, Jagdish Raj Sapolia, Durga Das, Garu Ram Bhagat and Bharat Bhushan.

Only two sitting members - Chaudhary Sham Lal and Chaudhary Sukhnandan - have been fielded again from their Suchetgarh and Marh assembly seats respectively in Jammu district.

Prominent among the new faces is Chaudhary Lal Singh who has been fielded for Basohli seat in Kathua district of Jammu region. Twice Congress Lok Sabha member from Udhampur seat, he was denied ticket in 2014 and angered by the decision, left the party and joined the BJP this year.

The party has not so far announced any candidate for Nagrota seat in Jammu district which was represented for the BJP in the 87-member assembly by Jugal Kishore, who won the Jammu Lok Sabha seat in the general election.

There are 10 Muslim candidates in the BJP list who have been fielded at various places in the Valley and the Jammu region.

The BJP has already announced it would be fielding candidates for all the 87 assembly seats.