Ravinder Raina, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president for Jammu and Kashmir, is a key candidate to watch in the upcoming 2024 Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections. Raina is seeking re-election from the Nowshera constituency in the Rajouri district, a seat he first won in 2014 by defeating his nearest rival Surinder Choudhary, then a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) member, by over 9,500 votes. 

 

Raina's candidacy is significant for several reasons. As the state BJP chief, he is leading the party's campaign in the elections and is considered a star campaigner. The BJP has fielded him from Nowshera, a seat that was traditionally a Congress bastion, winning it for eight consecutive terms from 1962 to 2002. Raina's victory in 2014 marked the first time the BJP won the seat. However, Raina faces a tough challenge this time from his former party colleague Surinder Choudhary, who is now contesting on a National Conference (NC) ticket with Congress support. Choudhary, a former MLC, had quit the PDP in March 2022 and joined the BJP, only to leave the party in July 2023 and join the NC. The two leaders have a history, with Raina serving Choudhary a Rs 5 crore legal defamation notice for levelling "baseless allegations" against him. 

 

The Nowshera seat, with a total of 86,506 voters and 116 polling stations, is among the 11 assembly segments in the Jammu region going to polls in the second phase on September 25. In addition to the two main candidates, there are three more contenders: Haq Nawaz from the PDP, Manohar Singh representing the BSP, and Shiv Dev Sharma, who is running as an Independent.