8 assembly segments of Chenab Valley to vote today

Jammu, Sep 17: From keenly-fought triangular contests to intriguing friendly fights between alliance partners – encompassing all spicy electoral flavours, eight assembly segments of Chenab Valley in the Jammu region will go to polls tomorrow in the first phase of J&K assembly elections.

These eight assembly constituencies in three districts of Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban are among those constituencies in the Jammu region where national and mainstream regional parties have almost equal stakes.

Till a decade ago or so, Congress and the National Conference always perceived this sub-region of Jammu province as their stronghold. Undercurrents for varied reasons changed the situation in the last two decades with the emergence of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as stakeholders.

However, it was the 2014 assembly elections, which changed the political landscape here with the emergence of BJP as a new and real threat to Congress and NC. Results stunned the National Conference as it saw its total rout in all three districts while Congress also managed to win only two seats out of a total of six seats.

This is why the 2024 assembly elections have emerged as a high-stake contest for BJP and a challenge for both NC and Congress to reclaim their lost ground. PDP too remains a potent threat for both (NC and Congress) as they all share the same vote bank.

The intriguing aspect is that emerging challenges compelled NC and Congress to enter into a pre-poll alliance. However, at the same time, both could not resist to hold “exclusive space” wherever possible. Hence Chenab Valley is also witnessing ‘friendly contests’ between the alliance partners. A more prominent ‘friendly contest’ is in Banihal constituency.

Before delimitation, there were six assembly segments, two each in Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban districts. In the 2014 assembly elections, BJP won both seats in the Doda district and one each from Kishtwar and Ramban districts. Congress won from the Inderwal constituency in the Kishtwar district and the Banihal constituency from the Ramban district.

Following delimitation, there are eight assembly constituencies in Chenab Valley, three each in Doda and Kishtwar districts and two in Ramban district. Two segments, one each in Doda and Kishtwar, have been added in delimitation.

In three assembly segments of Kishtwar district, there are 22 candidates in the electoral fray; 9 candidates in Inderwal, 7 in Kishtwar and 6 in Padder-Nagseni.

Kishtwar district has a total of 1,79,374 electors, including 91,935 male and 87,435 female and 4 transgender voters. 429 polling stations have been set up across the district.

Three assembly constituencies of Doda district will have 27 candidates in the electoral ring. 10 candidates are in the fray in the Bhaderwah constituency, 9 in Doda and 8 in Doda West.

Doda district has a total of 3,10,613 registered voters, including 1,60,057 males, 1,50,521 females and 8 transgenders across three assembly constituencies. A total of 534 polling stations are spread across these constituencies.

In Ramban district, 15 candidates are contesting; 8 from Ramban constituency and 7 from Banihal.  The district has 2,24,214 voters across its two Assembly constituencies, including 1,16,019 male voters, 1,08,193 female voters and 1 transgender voter. A total of 365 polling stations have been set up across the two assembly constituencies.

Given its high stakes, BJP banked upon its leading star campaigners -Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and other senior leaders for extensive high-octane electioneering. From the Congress side, the Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi campaigned.

Whose magic will work ultimately, October 8 will decide?

3 Major Issues in Chenab Valley

 Unemployment

Power, water crisis

Poor connectivity

Main challengers in electoral ring

KISHTWAR DISTRICT

Kishtwar: Sajjad Kichloo of NC, Shagun Parihar of BJP and Firdous Tak of PDPPadder-Nagseni: Sunil Sharma of BJP, NC’s Pooja Thakur, PDP’s Sandesh Kumar and Rakesh Goswami, a BJP rebel contesting as independent.

Inderwal: G M Saroori of Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP), Sheikh Zafarullah of Congress, Tariq Keen of BJP, Nasir Ahmed Sheikh of PDP.

DODA DISTRICT

Doda: Khalid Najib Suharwardy of NC, Abdul Majid Wani of DPAP, Gajay Singh Singh Rana of BJP and Riaz Ahmed of Congress.

Doda West: Shakti Parihar of BJP, Pardeep Kumar of Congress, Tanveer Hussain of PDP and Abdul Ghani of DPAP.

Bhaderwah: Daleep Singh Parihar of BJP, Nadeem Sharief of Congress and Sheikh Mehboob Iqbal of NC.

RAMBAN DISTRICT

Ramban: Rakesh Singh Thakur of BJP, Arjun Singh Raju of Congress and Suraj Singh Parihar, a BJP rebel contesting as independent.

Banihal: Vikar Rasool Wani of Congress, Sajjad Shaheen of NC, Mohammad Saleem Bhat of BJP and Imtiyaz Shan of PDP.