No major change in BJP’s new list of 29 candidates for J&K Assembly polls

STATE TIMES NEWS

JAMMU/NEW DELHI: Despite resentment shown by some party leaders over selection of candidates for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections, the BJP on Tuesday released its revised list of 29 nominees for the second and third phase, without making any major changes except replacing one contestant.
With the release of the fresh list, the party has so far named the candidates for 45 assembly segments, including nine in the Kashmir Valley where it has not been able to open its account in the past assembly elections.

The BJP has made one change from the now-rescinded list, which was put out on Monday, as it has named former MLA Baldev Raj Sharma from Shri Mata Vaishno Devi seat in place of Rohit Dubey. All other names are the same for the same set of constituencies, announced yesterday before being withdrawn.
The party’s latest list has 10 candidates for the second phase of polls and 19 for the third phase.
The BJP has so far not named its nominee for Nowshera, which was represented in 2014 by its current state president Ravinder Raina, and Gandhinagar, from where its another senior leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Kavinder Gupta was elected in the last polls.
The party fielded Devender Singh Rana from his strong pocket borough Nagrota and named Satish Sharma as its candidate from Billawar, which was represented by former Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh in the last assembly polls held in 2014.
Rana, who has won the 2014 elections from Nagrota on the National Conference ticket before joining the BJP three years back, is an easily amenable humble popular mass leader with a pan J&K presence and has nurtured and developed Nagrota constituency very well and is acceptable to all sections of society, a party leader said.
The BJP has reposed faith in former minister Chandra Prakash Ganga from Vijapur, former MLAs Pawan Gupta (Udhampur West), Jeevan Lal (Bani), Rajeev Sharma (Chhamb), Rajiv Jasrotia (Jasrota), Gharu Ram Bhagat (Suchetgarh -SC ) and Devinder Kumar Maniyal (Ramgarh-SC).
Sunil Bhardwaj was given the ticket from Ramnagar SC replacing former MLA R S Pathania, Ashok Bhat (Habbakadal in Srinagar), Kuldeep Raj Dubey (Reasi) after dropping former MLA Ajay Nanda, Thakur Randhir Singh (Kalakote Sunderbani) who replaced former minister Abdul Gani Kohli, Vijay Kumar Sharma (Hiranagar), Darshan Singh (Basohli) and Mohammad Akram Choudhary (Gulabgarh-ST).
The BJP fielded senior leader and National Secretary Narinder Singh Raina from R S Pura-Jammu south, party Vice President Yudhvir Sethi (Jammu East) and Arvind Gupta from Jammu West, dropping former minister Sat Paul Sharma.
Former minister Sham Lal Sharma, who joined the BJP after leaving the Congress in March 2019, was fielded from Jammu North while former minister Surjit Singh Slathia, who joined the BJP in October 2021, got a ticket from Samba.

BJP to draft in CMs, Union ministers to spearhead its membership drive

NEW DELHI: Union ministers, chief ministers and elected representatives from sarpanch to parliamentarians will spearhead the BJP’s nationwide membership drive starting from September 2, an exercise which will serve as the launch pad of the party’s internal polls leading to the election of its new president.
The start of the drive will be marked by BJP president J P Nadda renewing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s membership of the party before its senior leaders fan out across the country.
BJP national general secretary Vinod Tawde, who is also the head of the membership drive, appealed to people to join the party in a big way. A strong BJP will lead to the making of a ‘Viksit Bharat’, he said. The first phase of the membership drive will go on till September 25 and then a review of the exercise will be carried out before the launch of the second phase on October 1. It will continue till October 15, he said.
Active members, a term for party workers who can contest organisational elections after making a certain number of new members, will be enrolled between October 16-31.
Sources said there was no plan as of now to appoint a working president before a full-fledged president is elected. They, however, added that the party leadership may take a fresh call depending on organisational needs.
Tawde said party workers across the country have been trained for the drive, which relies heavily on the digital medium. The party is relying on its 10 lakh active members to carry out the exercise, he added.
All existing members of the BJP have to renew their membership every six years.
The current drive will be marked by the renewal of existing membership as well as making new members.
The BJP had earlier announced that the party aims to induct more than 10 crore members during the drive that will not cover the states going to polls in the coming months.
The party’s membership strength was 18 crore after the last such exercise, and it has expressed hope that the party will cross the figure this time.
New members will be made through four methods – calling a mobile number (8800002024), scanning QR code, by NaMo app and through the BJP’s website. However, in remote areas, the party will use the traditional method with papers to enrol new members.

A two-time MLA and former minister Chowdhary Zulfikar Ali, who recently joined the BJP after leaving the Apni Party, will contest from Budhal (ST) constituency, former MLA Balwant Singh Mankotia, who joined the BJP in September 2022, was fielded from Chenani, former minister Syed Mushtaq Ahmad Bukhari, who joined the BJP in February this year, was fielded from his stronghold of Surankote.
Mohd Iqbal Malik, who is a state executive member of the party and co-incharge minority morcha after joining the BJP in July 2019, was named the party’s candidate from Thanamandi, while three more new entrants into the party fold – former SSP Mohan Lal Bhagat, former MLC Murtaza Khan, Choudhary Abdul Gani – were fielded from Akhnoor-SC, Mendhar-ST and Poonch-haveli, respectively.
Meanwhile, a group of women BJP workers from the Ramnagar constituency staged a protest outside the party headquarters in Jammu, voicing their resentment against the party leadership for ignoring the women leaders while selecting the candidates.
The BJP has only fielded one woman candidate from the Kishtwar constituency. “We want a woman candidate in our constituency,” said a party worker, criticising the leaders for not opening the doors to hear them.