BJP fields Sat Sharma, Rakesh Mahajan, A M Mir

Jammu, Oct 12: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to field its J&K President Sat Sharma, J&K Vice President Rakesh Mahajan, and a veteran party leader from Kashmir, Ali Muhammad Mir, as its candidates for biennial elections to four vacant seats in Rajya Sabha from J&K.

The much-awaited announcement on Sunday led to accelerated swirling across the political landscape of J&K, with key players getting in a huddle to, what they call, “draw a strategy for the game of probability.”

Srinagar was the arena on Sunday where National Conference (NC), BJP, and Congress held their separate meetings to queer the pitch for the political adversaries, as an initial move.

Biennial elections to all four seats will be conducted on October 24, 2025.

Monday is the last day for filing nominations for the biennial election to the Rajya Sabha.

All stakeholders know that these acts of ‘maneuvering’ – so intrinsic to politics - and which will continue till the casting of the last vote, may have all the potential to upset the “numerical cart” of the key contenders, with a “little oversight.”

In this intriguing game of “wits-and-tricks”, secrecy and unity will be the key strategy.

So far at the receiving end of the ‘dominant partner’, Congress also Sunday cleared the air by rejecting the offer ‘to contest against an unsafe slot’, after a ‘clear snub’ by the ally NC.

In individual perspectives of NC leaders, Congress was already being dubbed as “not so realistic by anticipating, with its just six MLAs, even a single seat, and that too, a safer one at the cost of the NC’s own long list of hopefuls after years of waiting to have a tryst with the power.”

Taking all such ‘barbs’ in its stride, the Congress, which for the time being has only announced not to contest the Rajya Sabha polls, is treading with caution till it hopes to crack a ‘profitable deal’ with the alliance partner, at least in case of Nagrota and Budgam assembly by-polls.

By October 20 – the last date for filing nominations, (ahead of RS elections), once the scenario will be clear for assembly, the Congress may also talk to the alliance partner in “realistic lingo”, leaving the alliance partner to swing between the prospects of its (NC's) “safe” and “not so safe” seats (against third notification).

Notwithstanding these developments, the channels of negotiations, even on RS seats, will remain open between the alliance partners, till the filing of nomination papers, if the Congress high command gets some kind of “assurance about the safe seat” from the NC leadership.

The NC leadership, too, has preferred to chart a balancing course -prudently making moves.

Meanwhile, ending prolonged suspense, the BJP Central Election Committee (CEC) earlier on Sunday cleared its three names against four seats, the elections to which have been notified by the Election Commission of India (ECI) through three different notifications.

The party cleared the name of Ali Muhammad Mir against the first notice, notifying the election to fill the vacancy in that House caused by the retirement of Mir Muhammad Fayaz.

Ali Muhammad Mir had contested the 2024 Assembly elections from the Khan Sahab constituency in Kashmir but was unsuccessful.

Rakesh Mahajan will file his papers against the second notice related to the election to fill the vacancy caused due to the retirement of Shamsher Singh.

Mahajan currently serves as the BJP’s J&K Vice President and is known for his organisational acumen.

Sat Sharma has been fielded in a high-pitched combined election, notified through a third notice, to fill the vacancies caused due to the retirement of Ghulam Nabi Azad and Nazir Ahmed Laway.

A seasoned politician, Sharma previously served as a minister in the BJP-PDP coalition government and headed the party’s J&K unit from 2015 to 2018.

These seats have been lying vacant since 2021, when the term of office of four members elected from the erstwhile state of J&K expired on their retirement.

However, the elections to these vacant seats could not be conducted due to the non-availability of the required electorate (Members of J&K Legislative Assembly) at the time of occurrence of these vacancies.

Among the non-BJP opposition, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has three MLAs, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has one, People’s Conference one, and two independent members, Khursheed Ahmad Sheikh (MLA Langate) and Shabir Ahmad Kullay (MLA Shopian).

The AAP’s lone legislator, Mehraj Malik, is currently incarcerated and would require court permission to cast his vote.