Assembly By-Polls: BJP fields Devyani Rana from Nagrota, Aga Syed Mohsin from Budgam

Jammu, Oct 15: Ending a long-pending wait, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday handed over the baton to Devyani Rana to defend its stronghold of Nagrota assembly seat, which fell vacant after the demise of one of the party’s stalwarts and her illustrious father, Devender Singh Rana.

The BJP Central Election Committee (CEC) cleared the candidature of Devyani along with the party’s senior leader from Kashmir, Aga Syed Mohsin, who has been fielded as the BJP’s candidate from the Budgam assembly segment.

The by-poll for these two assembly segments has been scheduled on November 11, 2025.The Budgam seat fell vacant after the resignation of the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah from this assembly segment on October 21, 2024.

He contested from two seats i.e., Budgam and Ganderbal. Later, he vacated the Budgam seat and decided to retain the Ganderbal seat- his family’s bastion.

After the announcement of her candidature on Wednesday, October 15, 2025, an exuberant Devyani, while responding to the media persons, exuded confidence that she would take forward the hard-earned legacy of her illustrious father with aplomb and would try to repeat the historic performance of her father to win Nagrota seat for BJP with a record margin.

Nagrota seat had fallen vacant due to the sudden demise of her father and BJP legislator Devender Singh Rana on October 31, 2024.

She extended her heartfelt gratitude to the party’s top leadership – the Prime Minister Narendra Modi; the Union Home Minister Amit Shah; BJP president J P Nadda; BJP national general secretary and in-charge J&K affairs Tarun Chugh; J&K BJP president Sat Sharma; J&K BJP general secretary (organisation) Ashok Koul; the Leader of Opposition in J&K Legislature Sunil Sharma and the election in-charge Nagrota assembly segment Sham Lal Sharma for finding her worth candidate for her late father’s constituency – Nagrota.

“I’m grateful and I’m also feeling blessed that the party leadership has given me an opportunity to take forward my father’s mission and vision to make Nagrota a model constituency, by continuing his initiatives. For me Nagrota is my family. I’m confident that I will live up to the legacy and standard set by my father and win this seat with a record margin. Nagrota has always been a bastion of the BJP and it will continue to be so,” Devyani asserted.

Radiating her poise, she reaffirmed that to realise the vision of her father for Nagrota, under PM Viksit Bharat Rozgar Yojana, she had already undertaken a lot of initiatives. In this connection, she referred to the cooperative organisation set up in Mathwar block - an FPO, besides other initiatives.

She recalled her father’s pivotal role in laying the institutional foundations for farmer empowerment in Mathwar, including the registration and sanctioning of the ‘Mathwar Farmer Producer Organisation Cooperative Limited.’

“His vision was unequivocal: that genuine progress must emanate from those who till our soil and sustain our nation. I pledge to advance that vision with fidelity and resolve,” she said.

She asserted that she would work in tandem with the BJP’s “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas” doctrine.

Responding to questions about whether the infighting would impact her election in any manner, her subtle and confident response was, “BJP – the world’s largest party- is our family. I’ve taken the blessings of all the party leaders. There is no infighting, no internal bickering. It only exists in the media reports. If I spell out my “Mann Ki Baat”, all BJP leaders have given me wholehearted support and blessings.”

About her priorities, Devyani stated, “Priorities I have broken down Panchayat-wise. Some exercises we have undertaken. Some initiatives are in the pipeline. We will hit the ground running if Nagrota people bless me with their support and elect me.”