Today’s poll in J&K crucial for BJP

Contest will be mostly between Congress and BJP

Armymen and polling officers with Electronic Voting Machines sit inside a vehicle as they leave for their respective polling stations ahead of the fifth phase of elections in Jammu on Friday.

As Jammu and Kashmir votes in the fifth and final phase of the Assembly elections on Saturday, the contest will largely be between the two national parties — Congress and BJP.

Twenty Assembly segments in the Jammu, Rajouri and Kathua districts will go to the polls and the BJP is banking heavily on them to form a government in the State. The results in these constituencies will also decide the role of the Congress — which was part of both the previous governments — in government formation. In the four phases so far, 67 seats have gone to the polls.

Even though the BJP is trying hard to make its presence felt in the Valley for the first time, it is the Jammu division that it hopes to sweep and assume power in the State. The party seems to be one of the reasons for the high turnout in both the Jammu and Kashmir regions.

In the Valley, the voters mostly said they wanted to ensure that the BJP did not win. In Jammu, however, people came out in large numbers to attend rallies of BJP leaders and vote for the party.

While in the 2002 elections, the BJP won one seat in Nagrota in the Jammu division, in the 2008 elections, the party won 10 seats out of 20. This time, the BJP is hoping to improve its tally here. The Congress won five and the National Conference three seats in the last Assembly elections in these three districts.

The constituencies going to the polls on Saturday are Bani, Basohli, Billawar, Kathua and Hiranagar in the Kathua district; Nagrota, Gandhinagar, Jammu East, Jammu West, Bishnah, RS Pura, Suchetgarh, Akhnoor, Chhamb, Marh and Raipur Domana in the Jammu district; and Rajouri, Darhal, Kalakote and Nowshera in the Rajouri district.