BJP announces its media coordinators team for J-K assembly polls

New Delhi [India], August 26: Ahead of the Jammu and Kashmir (J-K) Assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday assigned national spokespersons RP Singh and Shazia Ilmi to coordinate media efforts in the Union Territory.

Punjab State Media Convenor Vineet Joshi will also be part of the media coordination team for the J-K assembly polls.

RP Singh, a national spokesperson for the BJP, was a member of the Fifth Delhi Legislative Assembly representing Rajinder Nagar. Shazia Ilmi, also a national spokesperson for the BJP, joined the party in 2015 after leaving the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Before entering politics, Ilmi was a journalist.

This announcement follows the BJP's release of its first list of 15 candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections in J-K.

The party has fielded Syed Showkat Andrabi from Pampore, Arshad Bhat from Rajpora, Javed Qari from Shopian, Mohd. Rafiq Wani from Anantnag West, Syed Wazahat from Anantnag, Sofi Yousuf from Bijbehar, Veer Saraf from Shangus-Anantnag East, Tariq Keen from Inderwal, Shagun Parihar from Kishtwar, Sunil Sharma from Padder-Naseni, Daleep Singh Parihar from Bhadarwah, Gajay Rana from Doda, Shakti Parihar from Doda, Rakesh Thakur from Ramban, and Salim Bhat to contest from Banihal constituency.

Meanwhile, the National Conference (NC) and Congress are holding discussions to resolve differences over seat-sharing for the upcoming assembly elections in the Union Territory.

August 27 is the last day for filing nominations for the first phase of the J-K assembly election.

On Monday, the Congress rushed KC Venugopal and senior leader Salman Khurshid to work out the details of the seat-sharing arrangement.

According to top Congress sources, the party is demanding to contest at least 8 seats out of the 24 seats in the first phase. Sources further added that the NC is offering 35 seats to the Congress against its demand for 37, out of a total of 90 seats.

It is learnt that the NC is talking about "friendly contests" on some seats, a suggestion to which the Congress is not ready.

As per the Election Commission of India, polling in J-K will be held in three phases on September 18, 25, and October 1, with the counting of votes scheduled for October 4.

There are a total of 90 Assembly constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir, of which 7 seats are reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and 9 seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribes (STs).

According to official data, Jammu and Kashmir has 88.06 lakh eligible electors.

These are the first Assembly elections to be held in Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.