In a surprise development, the BJP has dropped former deputy chief minister Kavinder Gupta from the sixth list of ten candidates released on Sunday for the upcoming J&K assembly elections replacing him with a former MLC Vikram Randhawa.
In another move, the BJP announced Ghulam Mohammad Mir as its candidate from south Kashmir’s Handwara to contest against the Peoples’ Conference chief Sajad Lone who was a minister from the party quota in the earlier PDP-BJP coalition government.
The saffron party also fielded Lone from the Baramulla seat during the recent Lok Sabha elections.
The BJP fielding its candidate against Lone, who was identified by the Opposition as a “proxy” of BJP, is being seen by political circles as the party’s tactical move. Lone has filed his nomination from two constituencies.
Earlier, the party dropped another former deputy chief minister Prof. Nirmal Singh.
Randhawa was earlier a ticket aspirant from another constituency but the party gave a mandate to the party’s national secretary Narinder Singh. However, his name appeared in today’s list as the candidate for the Bahu seat that was earlier known as the Gandhi Nagar constituency.
The BJP, after releasing the two initial lists, witnessed a revolt-like situation as these included names of several turncoats who had come from Congress, National Conference, and PDP. Other senior BJP leaders on at least 13 seats, including Sat Sharma, Chander Mohan, Kashmira Singh, and a few others, were denied the mandate.
In the fresh list of ten candidates, five have been fielded in the Kashmir Valley.
The BJP has named Bharat Bhushan from Kathua and announced Ghulam Mohamed Mir as the candidate from Handwara. Naseer Ahmad Lone will contest from Bandipora, while RS Pathania has been named for Udhampur East.
Mohammed Idrees Karnahi, Abdul Rashid Khan, and Faqir Mohammad Khan will contest from Karnah, Sonawari, and Gurez, respectively. The BJP also named Rajeev Bhagat from the Bishnah constituency and Surinder Bhagat from Marh.