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Journalism of Courage
With its rebel Choudhary Lal Singh announcing he will contest from both Jammu-Poonch and Udhampur-Doda parliamentary constituencies and the National Conference (NC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) deciding to stay away from electoral battle in favour of the Congress in the two seats, it may not be a cakewalk for the BJP in the Jammu region this time.
The BJP has repeated its sitting MPs — Jugal Kishore from Jammu-Poonch and Minister of State, PMO, Jitendra Singh from Udhampur-Doda. In 2014, Kishore had defeated Congress’s Madan Lal Sharma by 2.57 lakh votes, while Singh’s victory margin against senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad was nearly 60,000 votes.
The Congress has this time fielded ex-state minister Raman Bhalla from Jammu-Poonch and Dogra royal family scion Vikramaditya Singh from Udhampur-Doda. While the party had the support of the NC in 2014 too, the situation could change if the PDP votes transfer to it too. The PDP had polled 1.68 lakh votes in Jammu and 30,461 in Udhampur in 2014. The Sikh community has extended its support to Bhalla, and announcements are being made from gurdwaras in Jammu seeking votes for him.
BJP rebel Choudhary Lal Singh has announced he would be contesting as an Independent over issues such as “discrimination” against Jammu including the failure to declare Maharaja Hari Singh’s birthday as holiday, and arrests over the Kathua gang rape-murder. Singh, who won two times from Udhampur as a Congress candidates in 2004 and 2009, is also a three-time MLA from Basohli, and wields considerable influence in Kathua district.
Apart from Lal Singh, leader of refugees from PoK Rajiv Chunni is among the 38 people who have filed their nomination from Jammu-Poonch. There are an estimated 3 lakh voters among PoK-displaced persons apart from 45,000 refugees from West Pakistan in Jammu-Poonch, and they are not likely to vote en masse for the BJP as they did in 2014.
Of the 18 lakh voters in the constituency, Hindus and Muslims are in the ratio of 60:40, while in Udhampur-Doda, they are nearly equal in number. Hence, any consolidation against the BJP could cost it dear.
Vikramaditya will also cash in on the nostalgia factor, with a royal family member contesting from here after 35 years. His father Karan Singh had won from the constituency four times, even withstanding the Janata and Indira Gandhi waves in 1977 and 1980. While Vikramaditya has been a PDP MLC, this is his first parliamentary election.
Jitendra Singh, for his part, is banking on the Modi government’s development report card and seeking votes in the name of the PM.
