BJP announces first list of 72 candidates for J-K DDC elections

The BJP on Monday released its first list of 72 candidates for the upcoming District Development Council (DDC) elections in Jammu and Kashmir. The BJP announced 35 candidates for the Jammu region and 37 for the Kashmir valley, a party spokesperson said.

The list was finalised at a high-level meeting held at the party's headquarters here. The meeting was chaired by Jammu and Kashmir BJP chief Ravinder Raina. Union minister Jitendra Singh, National Secretary Narinder Singh, former deputy chief minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir Nirmal Singh, general secretary (organisation) Ashok Kaul and other senior leaders participated in the meeting.

The BJP has announced 35 candidates for DDC elections in the Jammu region and 37 for the Kashmir valley. Names of candidates for 72 seats have been declared today, the spokesperson said. Elections to DDCs will be held in eight phases from December 1 to December 24.

These elections will be the first major political activity in Jammu and Kashmir since August 5 last year, when the Centre revoked the special status of the erstwhile state under Article 370 of the Constitution and split it into two union territories -- Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. Jammu and Kashmir State Election Commissioner K K Sharma had on Thursday issued the first notification for conducting the maiden DDC elections in 20 districts.

Delimitation had been done for the constituencies and 280 DDCs identified across the union territory for undertaking the elections, with 14 DDC constituencies in each district, he had said. The BJP also released a list of 17 candidates for urban local body (ULB) bypolls in the union territory. All of these names were declared for constituencies in Kashmir.

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Hardesh Kumar had also issued the first notification for the eight-phase ULB bypolls on Thursday. The polling would begin on November 28 and the counting of votes will be taken up the same day. The date before which the election shall be completed has been fixed as December 24.