The ruling National Conference fielded Devender Singh Rana, a close confidant of chief minister Omar Abdullah, from the Nagrota assembly seat.
In the third list released on Saturday for the upcoming assembly elections in the state to be held in November-December, Rana will contest from the Nagrota seat.
This is for the first time he will contest the elections. A close aide of Omar Abdullah, Devender Singh Rana was advisor of the chief minister during the initial period of the present NC-Congress coalition. At present, Rana is the president of the NC from the Jammu region.
At the present, the Nagrota assembly seat is being held by the BJP, as its party president Jugal Kishore Sharma had won the seat in 2008 assembly elections. Jugal Kishore Sharma is now the member of parliament (MP) from the Jammu-Poonch Lok Sabha seat. Though Sharma has won the recently-held parliamentary elections with a huge margin of around two lakh votes, he had won the Nagrota assembly seat by a narrow margin of 2000 votes.
It will also be a litmus test for Devender Singh Rana who has been nurturing the constituency for the last four years.
{{/usCountry}}It will also be a litmus test for Devender Singh Rana who has been nurturing the constituency for the last four years.
{{/usCountry}}Jammu and Kashmir National Conference general secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar announced the third list of 15 candidates for the assembly elections here on Saturday. Earlier, the party had announced a list of 46 candidates.
The party parliamentary board met under the chairmanship of president Dr Farooq Abdullah and cleared a list of 15 candidates, 10 for the Kashmir region and five for the Jammu region.