BJP unveils 3rd list of 29 candidates for J&K polls

The BJP on Tuesday released a list of 29 candidates for the Jammu and Kashmir assembly election. In its third list released ahead of the polls, the party announced 10 candidates for the second phase of the election and 19 candidates for the third phase. Barring a change of candidate from Mata Vaishno Devi assembly constituency, the party retained the names that figured in the list which was withdrawn a day earlier.

From the Mata Vaishno Devi seat, the party has replaced its Reasi district president Rohit Dubey with former MLA Baldev Raj Sharma, who was an MLA in 2008 and was suspended from the party. Sharma was taken back into the party in 2014 and was denied the party ticket in the last assembly election.

Former deputy chief minister of J&K Nirmal Singh has been denied ticket from Bilawar assembly constituency and has been replaced with Satish Sharma. Similarly, senior BJP leader and MLA from Jammu West, Sat Sharma, has been denied ticket from Jammu West assembly seat. The party has fielded Arvind Gupta instead from the seat.


BJP leader Devinder Singh Rana has been fielded from his constituency Nagrota. Rana won the Nagrota seat in 2014 on the National Conference ticket but later joined the BJP.

On Monday, the party faced protests when it named Narinder Singh as its candidate from the RS Pura seat in Jammu. Two party leaders, Sham Lal and Vikram Randhawa were also ticket hopefuls. However, Tuesday's list retained Singh's name as the party candidate from the seat. State BJP leaders would talk to the other two candidates and persuade them to work for the party, said people familiar with the matter.

So far, the BJP has announced candidates from 45 assembly seats in J&K.