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Canvassing picks up pace in Jammu after assembly polls announcement
BJP appears on sticky wicket, Congress and National Conference likely to make gains according to experts
With the contentious Article 370 and 35-A turning chapters of history on August 5, 2019, the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir will go into the assembly elections, the first in almost a decade, with a different look.
Within hours of the Election Commission announcing the much awaited assembly elections, Jammu became the hub of heightened politicking.
The major parties vying for votes across Jammu would be Bharatiya Janata Party, its arch-rival Congress, National Conference, People’s Democratic Party, Apni Party and Democratic Progressive Azad Party.
Going by the BJP’s performance in the recently held Lok Sabha elections vis-à-vis undercurrent against it, political analysts feel the saffron party may not be able to accomplish its “mission 50-plus” and may instead fall in the ballpark of its 2014 tally of around 25 to 26 seats.
They anticipate the Congress and the National Conference eating into the saffron party’s vote share, upsetting its applecart.
BJP led Congress in 29 out of total 36 assembly segments in Jammu and Udhampur parliamentary constituencies in the Lok Sabha polls. Seven assembly constituencies of Rajouri, meanwhile, were part of Anantnag-Poonch-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat.
Following the delimitation exercise in May 2022, Jammu and Kashmir now has 90 assembly seats — Jammu region with 10 districts has 43 assembly constituencies and Kashmir with 10 districts has 47 — up from 87.
Of these, 74 are general seats, nine are for Scheduled Caste candidates, and seven for Scheduled Tribes.
The number of voters in the UT is 87.09 lakh, of which 44.46 lakh are men and 42.62 lakh women. The final electoral roll will be published on August 20.
BJP retained both seats from Jammu in the Lok Sabha polls for the third straight elections, but the party’s winning candidates, Jugal Kishore Sharma and Dr Jitendra Singh, trailed in seven assembly segments of Gulabgarh (in Reasi district), Suchetgarh and R S Pura (in Jammu district), Inderwal (Kishtwar district), Bhaderwah, Doda (Doda district) and Banihal (Ramban district).
In these seven assembly segments, Congress and its INDIA bloc ally, National Conference maintained a lead, in Banihal and Gulabgarh in particular.
