J&K Elections 2024: BJP Releases Third List of 17 Candidates, Fields Devinder Rana From Nagrota

Jammu and Kashmir Elections 2024: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has released its third list of 17 candidates for the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections 2024. The party has fielded senior leader Devender Singh Rana from Nagrota assembly constituency 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.

The BJP has made one change from the now-rescinded list, which was put out on Monday, as it has named Baldev Raj Sharma from Shri Mata Vaishno Devi seat in place of Rohit Dubey. All other names are same for the same set of constituencies, announced yesterday before being withdrawn.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 Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, which has a 90-member assembly, is going to polls in three phases on September 18, 25 and October 1. 

Earlier on  Monday, the BJP had issued a list of 16 candidates for the first phase of the Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections, considerably pruning an initial list of 44 names following protests by some party cadre who alleged that "parachute candidates" were favoured over dedicated workers. The original list, which included candidates for 36 segments in the Jammu region and eight in the Kashmir Valley, sparked significant dissatisfaction among party workers.

A group of disgruntled members protested at the BJP headquarters in Jammu. While Jammu and Kashmir BJP president Ravinder Raina attempted to downplay the discontent, the protests highlighted a growing rift within the party ranks. Some angry BJP workers from different assembly constituencies staged a protest at the party headquarters over the leadership "ignoring" hardworking workers and giving the mandate to "parachute candidates".

The revised list of candidates included three former MLAs and Shagun Parihar, a woman candidate whose family has faced violence due to their political affiliations. Her father and uncle were killed by terrorists in Kishtwar district in November 2018. Other notable candidates in the list are former ministers Sunil Sharma and Shakti Raj Parihar from the Jammu region and BJP vice president Sofi Yousuf from the Kashmir Valley.

Former deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh was among the prominent leaders dropped by the BJP. On the internal rumblings within the Jammu and Kashmir BJP, party unit chief Raina said, "The BJP is fully prepared for the elections... our mission is ensuring the victory of our party." As of now, 14 candidates have filed their nomination papers for the first phase of elections. August 27 is the last date for filing nominations for the first phase. 

The process of filing nominations for the second and third phases will begin on August 29 and September 5, respectively. The counting of votes for the elections will be taken up on October 4. In the last assembly elections held in Jammu and Kashmir in 2014, when it was a full-fledged state, the BJP had won 25 seats. The BJP is looking on build on its performance as it faces a rejuvenated challenge from the Congress-National Conference alliance, particularly in the Jammu region