With the announcement of Rajya Sabha polls and bienuall assembly polls in Nagrota and Budgam Assembly constituencies election fever once again gripped in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Political parties in Jammu and Kashmir have welcomed the announcement of biennual assembly elections and Rajya Sabha polls in the Union Territory. Political parties have expressed approval of the decision to hold Rajya Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir after a gap of 4 years. “Better late than never. This is the first elections in J&K are being conducted after the National Conference- Congress govt came in power 11 years back. Political parties have began election campaign and holding meetings to finalise names for four Rajya Sabha seats and two assembly seats. Political parties are preparing for the polls from day one; this might be a new experience for some political parties. Political parties welcome the announcement of elections and hope it will be a free and fair election. Right now, what is important is that J&K is getting a chance to elect their representatives after nearly 4 years to the eleder House at New Delhi. The Congress party should vote against the decision to take away special status, constitution, and flag. Many political parties will express their resentment through their votes in the ame way. All parties, believe that a vacuum was created in J&K due to the absence of elections for the last 4 years to Rajya Sabha … With the announcement of elections, there is now a renewed sense of hope that J&K will have its four members in Rajya Sabha. The Congress party has sought one seat from its alliance partner National Conference in Rajya Sabha. Congress leaders from J&K is holding series of meeting with the its President Malikaarjun Kharge and vice president Rahul Gandhi at New Delhi. Similarly, BJP is also holding its meetings with its party president JP Nadda at Delhi to finalise names for Rajya Sabha seats and two assembly seats. Out of four seats for the Rajya Sabha, three likely to be easily win by Natioanl Conference- Congress alliance while one seat may go to BJP who have 28 MLAs in assembly if we will witness cross voting in the polls. However, among two assembly seats, BJP may field former BJP MLA’s Late Devendra Singh Rana’s daughter Devayani Rana from Nagrota assembly constituency while Chief minister Omar Abdullah will chance his arm to givemandate to his son from Budgam seat. The front runners from the BJP for Rajya Sabha four seats may be former Deputy Chief minister Nirmal Singh, BJP party president Sat Sharma, Sunil Sethi, Assem Gupta, former minister Bali Bhagat. Tarun Chug a resident of native state Punjab is also trying his level best to enter Rajya Sabha through back door from J&K as he can not able to win any elections from Punjab till date. Ashok Koul organising secretary BJP J&K is also lobbying at Delhi to get mandate However, National Conference will field Dr Farooq Abdullah from one seat. Names for the rest of three seats may be decided in coming days by the party. Congress who have six MLAs is likely to field its Chief Spokesperson Ravinder Sharma who is also journalist and ex MLC of the party. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has issued three separate notifications for the nomination of candidates for elections to the four Rajya Sabha seats from Jammu and Kashmir, which have been vacant since February 2021. In three separate notifications, the ECI has announced that the deadline for filing nominations is October 13, followed by the scrutiny of nominations on October 14. The candidates will have until October 16 to withdraw their nominations. The voting by the members of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly for the candidates will be held on October 24. As per the notification, two separate elections will be held for the first and second seats, and a combined election will be held for the remaining two seats. With the issuance of the nomination notifications, the political parties in Jammu and Kashmir, National Conference (NC), Congress and BJP will huddle to choose candidates for the polls. None of the party has not yet finalise name of the candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections. NC party want Dr Farooq Abdullah to be in the Rajya Sabha, as he is the senior-most leader in Jammu and Kashmir, and his “voice must be heard” in the parliament. There are speculations NC will contest three seats, which the ruling party is set to win, given its members’ arithmetic in the legislative assembly. However, Congress is holding meeting with its national leaderships on contesting one seat. The NC has its own 41 MLAs and the support of six Congress MLAs, five Independents and one MLA of CPI(M), Yousuf Tarigami, which takes its tally to 53. The 90-member assembly in Jammu and Kashmir has at present 88 MLAs, as two seats Budgam in Kashmir and Nagrota in Jammu fell vacant after the chief minister Omar Abdullah vacated the Budgam seat and retained Ganderbal, and the demise of BJP MLA Devender Rana in November. The smaller opposition parties, Peoples Democratic Party, have three MLAs, while Peoples Conference has one in Sajad Lone, Aam Aadmi Party has one in Mehraj Malik, and there is one independent MLA, Sheikh Khusrsheed (affiliated with AIP of Engineer Rashid). Congress central leadership of the party will take a final call about the elections. Negotiations are being held between the central-level leadership and the NC leadership. The main opposition, the BJP, which has 28 MLAs, is set to win one seat and has announced it will contest all four seats.
