Union minister Jitendra Singh among seven to file nominations in Jammu

Kathua, March 22

Seven candidates, including BJP's two sitting MPs Jitendra Singh and Jugal Kishore Sharma, filed their nomination papers in three Lok Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir on Friday, officials said.

Singh and Sharma filed the nomination papers for the Udhampur-Doda and Jammu-Poonch parliament seats, respectively, they said.

Accompanied by Railways Minister Piyush Goyal, Singh arrived at the deputy commissioner's office in a procession and filed his nomination before the returning officer. After filing the papers, the 64-year-old Singh Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office addressed a party rally.

"I am seeking votes on my development report card of five years, which is in itself a history of sorts in journey of development in this constituency. There is a long list of major infrastructure projects undertaken and completed," he told reporters here.

The sitting parliamentarian said development work carried out in the constituency in the past five years was "hundreds of times higher" than that done in the previous six-and-half decades.

"Voting in my favour is vote for return of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the service of the nation and continuance of the development journey," he said.

Singh is pitted against Congress and National Conference coalition candidate Vikramaditya Singh, the son of veteran Congress leader Karan Singh.

The Udhampur parliamentary constituency goes to polls on April 18.

BJP's other sitting MP, Sharma, was accompanied by BJP state president Ravinder Raina, state general secretary Yudhvir Sethi, MP (Rajya Sabha) Shamsher Singh Manhas, JMC Mayor Chander Mohan Gupta.

As per election authorities, Subhash Chander as an Independent candidate filed his nomination paper to returning officer Ramesh Kumar at DC Office in Jammu.

With this, a total of four nominations have been filed so far in the Jammu LS seat.

The others who have filed the nominations are Raja Aijaz Ali of Jammu and Kashmir People's Conference (JKPC), Abdul Quyoom Wani of People's Democratic Party (PDP), Mohammad Akbar Lone of National Conference (NC) and Syed Ameer Sohail as an Independent Candidate. PTI