SRINAGAR: JKPCC chief Tariq Hameed Karra on Thursday filed his nomination papers for the Shalteng seat in Srinagar. He is a combined candidate of the Congress and NC which recently entered into a pre-poll alliance, the primary object of which is to “defeat divisive BJP” in these elections.
However, since both the parties were facing rebellion by several aspirants who were being dropped out in the ticket allocations, they decided to have a “friendly” fight on five seats. In the remaining 85 segments, the NC is contesting on 51 seats and the Congress on 32 seats. Two seats have been left for the CPIM and Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers’ Party.
Mr Karra while speaking to reporters after filing his papers issued a warning about the Assembly elections, saying that “mistakes committed in this election can impact us for the next 100 years.” He asked the people to make careful and informed choices while casting their vote.
The BJP’s J&K unit chief Ravinder Raina also formally joined the election fray by filing his nomination papers from the Nowshera Assembly segment in the frontier district of Rajouri. He had won the seat in 2014 after defeating PDP’s Surinder Choudhary by a margin of 9,503 votes.
After filing his nomination, Mr. Raina held a roadshow in the border town of Nowshera with RSS functionary and former BJP general secretary Ram Madhav who was recently appointed as the party’s in-charge for the Assembly elections in J&K along with Union Minister G Kishan Reddy.
While speaking on the occasion, Mr. Raina said that it was not just his candidacy, “but it represents the aspirations of 1.25 lakh people of the Nowshera constituency”.
Mr. Madhav said, “BJP will emerge as the single-largest party in Jammu region. Our candidates contesting in the (Kashmir) Valley too are strong and poised to lead in the elections.” He added, “The new government in Jammu and Kashmir will be of nationalists, not anti-nationals.”
