Jammu: As the last date for filing nomination forms for the second phase Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections is on September 5, the candidates of the Congress party are having eyes on the release of lists for the Phase-2 polling ahead of Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and senior leader Rahul Gandhi’s visit to address two rallies in Jammu and Kashmir.
Rahul Gandhi will address two election rallies in Jammu and Kashmir on September 4
and campaign for the candidates of the NC-Congress alliance in Dooru (Kashmir) for
G A Mir and Sangaldan (Jammu) for Vikar Rasool Wani.
“We hope that the visit of Rahul Gandhi to Jammu and Kashmir comes after releasing the list of Congress candidates for Phase-2 with the last date of filing nomination papers falling on September 5,” party sources said.
A total of 26 Assembly constituencies in the districts of Ganderbal, Srinagar, Budgam, Reasi, Rajouri, and Poonch will go to polls in the second phase on September 25.
The Congress party has already announced its first list of nine candidates including senior leaders Ghulam Ahmad Mir from the Dooru constituency and Vikar Rasool Wani from the Banihal seat.
As per the NC-Congress pact, the NC will contest 51 seats, the Congress will contest 32 seats while additionally, one seat each has been allotted to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP).
Both the parties have also agreed to a “friendly contest” on five seats.
“The Congress party is lagging in finalizing the names of the candidates for Phases 1 and 2,” party sources said, adding that the list for Phase 2 is expected to be released by Sep 2-3.
Notably, the BJP, National Conference, and the PDP have already announced the names of most of their candidates.
“Although the Screening Committee and the State Election Committee have already submitted the panel of names of the candidates to the party high command, the delay is on the part of the Central Election Committee (CEC),” they said.
“Two Ex JKPCC Presidents, Vikar Rasool and Ghulam Ahmed Mir, have already filed nomination papers for the first phase of elections,” they said adding that apart from two JKPCC working presidents, Raman Bhalla and Tara Chand, former ministers Choudhary Lal Singh, Mula Ram, Yogesh Sahni, Shabir Ahmed Khan, youth leaders Shahnawaz Choudhary, Neeraj Kundan, Satish Sharma and many prominent leaders are among the front runners for the tickets in the Phase-2 and Phase-3 elections.
Sources said that though the decision on announcing names from Jammu South-R S Pura and Bahu assembly seats will be a challenging task the party is expected to bank on Raman Bhalla in one of these two seats.
As per the NC-Congress alliance, there is to be a friendly contest on Nagrota seat.
Party sources said that the National Conference as per the pact has already fielded its candidates from the Jammu North, Vijaypur, Nowshera, Kalakot-Sunderbani, adding, “now the Congress party leaders are having all the eyes on the second list for which the names will be announced on September 2 or 3 and the names of the candidates for the Phase-3 will also be finalised.”
“Two young faces from Jammu and Kashmir, who got berths in the All India Congress Committee namely Neeraj Kundan and Shahnawaz Choudhary, are also believed to be in the fray from Bishnah and Surankote constituencies respectively,” sources added.
Earlier Rahul Gandhi had visited Jammu and Kashmir on August 21-22.
UNI
