Big names dropped, BJP goes with the same, ‘cancelled’, J-K candidate list

The BJP has repeated only three of its former ministers, Chander Parkash Ganga from Vijaypur, Rajiv Jasrotia from newly created Jasrota, and Dr Devinder Kumar Manyal from Ramgarh, which has been reserved for Scheduled Castes.

Many of the candidates crossed over to the BJP from other parties, including one as recently as two days ago.

While the BJP has not given any official reason on why it cancelled its Monday’s list, sources claimed it had been released by mistake by a “computer operator” at the party headquarters. According to the sources, after the list of BJP candidates for all the three J&K phases was cleared by a meeting of the Chief Election Committee of the party, attended by Prime Minister Narendera Modi, the computer operator was asked to release names for only the first phase seats, but released the entire file.

The only change between the BJP’s Monday and Tuesday lists was the name of its candidate from the newly created Mata Vaishno Devi Assembly constituency. While Rohit Dubey was first announced as the candidate, the new name is Baldev Raj Sharma, who had won from the Reasi Assembly seat on the BJP ticket in 2008.

Incidentally, Sharma was among nearly half-a-dozen BJP MLAs who were suspended by the party for cross-voting in favour of a National Conference candidate during Legislative Council elections. Sharma had denied the charge.

Sources attributed the BJP’s decision to drop prominent leaders to the “growing public anger” towards them over alleged non-performance and disconnect with the masses, despite the wave for the BJP in the 2014 Assembly elections. There is also disaffection over the BJP leaders failing to meet their repeated promises to regularise jobs of thousands of daily wagers working in government departments.

In the recent Lok Sabha polls, while the BJP won both the Lok Sabha seats in Jammu (it did not contest in Kashmir), its vote share dropped by 4.6% in Jammu seat and 10.1% in newly named Udhampur-Doda.

Sources said the discontent against the leaders was obvious at a meeting held by the RSS of all its constituents, including the BJP, and chaired by senior RSS functionary Arun Kumar, held in Jammu last week.

In the presence of senior BJP leaders, including a former deputy CM and a sitting party MP, almost all the participants asked as to what they had done for people to vote for them again. Arun Kumar reportedly tried to pacify those present, saying they should not succumb to the Opposition’s “narrative”, but the consensus was that the “non-performing” former ministers be replaced by new faces.

Consequently, from Billawar, a constituency represented by Nirmal Singh earlier, the BJP has fielded Satish Sharma, while Sham Lal has been dropped in favour of BJP general secretary Narinder Singh Raina from R S Pura-Jammu South constituency.

R S Pura-Jammu South is a new seat, carved out of parts of Gandhi Nagar and R S Pura Assembly constituencies post delimitation. While Sham Lal had won from Suchetgarh in 2014, it is now an SC-reserved seat and he was eyeing the neighbouring RS Pura-Jammu South.

The Gandhi Nagar seat was represented by Kavinder Gupta. From this seat, the constituency of Bahu has been carved out. Gupta has so far not got a ticket, with the BJP yet to announce the name for Bahu seat.

The BJP has fielded Gharu Ram Bhagat from R S Pura, the same constituency from where he had won as a BJP MLA in the 2008 elections. Like Sharma, Bhagat had been subsequently suspended by the BJP on charges of cross-voting during the Legislative Council elections. While Bhagat had joined the Congress after it, he has since returned to the BJP.

The other former ministers who have been dropped from their seats include Sat Sharma, who has been replaced by Arvind Gupta in Jammu West; Ajay Nanda, who has given way to Kuldeep Raj Dubey in Reasi; and Abdul Ghani Kohli, replaced by Thakur Randhi Singh in the newly carved out Kalakote-Sunderbani constituency.

While former BJP minister Manyal has been moved to Ramgarh, from Samba that he won in 2014, the Samba ticket has gone to Surjit Singh Slathia. A former NC minister, Slathia joined the BJP in 2019, along with Devender Rana, the former political advisor to ex-CM and senior NC leader Omar Abdullah.

Rana, a three-time MLA who won from Nagrota on the NC ticket despite the BJP wave in Jammu in 2014, will contest again from the Assembly seat – this time on the BJP ticket.

Sham Lal Sharma, former firebrand Congress minister, who also joined the BJP in 2019, has been named for Jammu North, which has been carved out of parts of Jammu West and Raipur Domana constituencies.

Retired SSP Mohan Lal Bhagat, who quit police service and joined the BJP two days ago, has got the ticket from Akhnoor, a constituency reserved for SCs. Rajiv Sharma, who was elected from Akhnoor in 2014, has been shifted to Chhamb.

Former minister Chowdhary Zulfikar Ali, a prominent Gujjar face in Rajouri-Poonch districts, who joined the BJP from the PDP a week ago, has been fielded from Budhal, an ST-reserved seat.

Former minister Syed Mushtaq Ahmad Bukhari, a prominent Pahari leader and a former NC leader till recently, has been fielded from Surankote, a seat reserved for STs. Mohammad Iqbal Malik, a BJP DDC member from Darhal, has been given the ticket from Thanamandi.

Murtaza Khan, a Pahari leader who supported former CM Mehbooba Mufti in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, has been fielded from Mendhar and Chowdhary Abdul Ghani, a Gujjar leader, from Poonch.

All the Pahari and Gujjar candidates, except Malik, joined the BJP recently.

Two-time Panthers Party MLA from Udhampur Balwant Singh Mankotia, the nephew of party founder Bhim Singh, is the BJP candidate from Chenani.

Asked about the protest by some BJP workers at the party headquarters Monday after the original list came out, a senior leader said they were supporters of a local party leader whose name did not figure remotely among probable candidates.

Another senior BJP leader said that it had been conveyed long back to those who have been dropped that they may not be repeated this time. This is why, the leader said, their supporters were not among the protesters.