While the Aam Aadmi Party is fielding an RTI activist against National Conference patriarch Farooq Abdullah in the coming Lok Sabha elections in Srinagar, the Bhartiya Janata Party has decided to give its ticket in the Udhampur-Doda segment to the noted diabetologist Dr. Jitendra Singh.
Informed sources revealed to The Hindu that the BJP high command finalised its list of candidates for all the six J&K seats on Thursday evening. A first timer, Dr. Singh would be contesting against the Congress incumbent MP Chowdhary Lal Singh in Udhampur-Doda. Dr. Singh is currently BJP's national executive member and the party's spokesman in J&K. He is, interestingly, the brother of the National Conference Jammu provincial president and the high profile Omar Abdullah-confidante Devender Singh Rana.
Sources said the party's MLA from Nagrota and President of the State unit Jugal Kishore would be fielded in Jammu proper constituency where the Congress party is yet again fielding Madan Lal Sharma.
Prominent Buddhist leader Thupstan Chewang would get BJP's ticket from Ladakh.
In Kashmir, sources said, the BJP has zeroed in on its provincial head Ghulam Mohammad Mir for the Baramulla-Kupwara seat. Mr. Mir joined Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's Peoples Democratic Party after his retirement in Horticulture Department. He unsuccessfully contested the 2008 Assembly election from his home constituency of Handwara.
Mushtaq Ahmad Malik would be the BJP candidate for the South Kashmir constituency of Anantnag-Pulwama.
AAP’s list
The AAP on Thursday declared RTI activist and citizen journalist Dr. Raja Muzafrar Bhat as its candidate from the central Kashmir seat of Srinagar-Budgam. After a brief tryst with PDP, Mr. Bhat went into oblivion for about a year and finally resurfaced on Thursday as the AAP's first, and probably the only candidate in J&K. He would be contesting against the NC's ace Farooq Abdullah who has represented Srinagar in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and has served as Chief Minister for four terms.
NC has already announced its incumbent Lok Sabha member Dr. Mehbooba Beg as the party's candidate from Ananantnag. The PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti would also contest from the same constituency.
Former Minister Tariq Hamid Qarra has been declared as PDP candidate from Srinagar while as prominent advocate and former Deputy Chief Muzaffar Baig would contest from Baramulla.
NC has yet to nominate its candidate from Baramulla though MLA Mustafa Kamaal, Rajya Sabya member Mohammad Shafi Uri and incumbent MP Sharifuddin Shariq are said to be under consideration of the party high command.
Currently the NC is holding four of the six seats (including its 2009 proxy from Ladakh, Ghulam Hassan Khan) while as Congress retains its monopoly on both the Jammu province seats.
