BJP core group meets in Jammu ahead of RS polls

The core group of Jammu and Kashmir BJP met here on Saturday and discussed various issues, including the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls for the four seats of the Union Territory, a senior party leader said.

He asserted that the party’s high command will finalise the list of candidates, which will be acceptable to all.

J&K BJP chief spokesperson Sunil Sethi said the meeting was chaired by national general secretary Tarun Chugh and was attended by Union Minister Jitendra Singh, J&K BJP president Sat Sharma, national executive member Ravinder Raina and others.

The Election Commission (EC) announced on September 25 that the elections for the four Rajya Sabha seats in the Union Territory would be held on October 24, more than four years after they fell vacant.

“The core group meeting took place and discussed various issues, including the prevailing political situation and the upcoming elections for the four seats of the Rajya Sabha from J&K,” Sethi told reporters at the party headquarters here.

He said the Leader of Opposition in the J&K Assembly, Sunil Sharma, could not attend the meeting as he was not present here.

“The core group members put forth their viewpoint about the possible candidates. The deliberations will be forwarded to the party high command through the committee concerned and it will accordingly finalise the list of candidates who will fight the elections. The final decision of the party high command will be acceptable to all,” he said.

Sethi said this was the initial meeting on the issue and there are no talks going on with any regional party on the subject. He said the party intends to fight the elections on all four seats.

The last date for filing nominations for the Rajya Sabha polls is October 13. The counting of votes will be taken up in the evening of October 24, an hour after the polling concludes.

Polling for the four Rajya Sabha seats in the Union Territory is being held nearly a year after the Assembly polls. The seats fell vacant in February 2021, when the terms of the then MPs Mir Mohammad Fayaz, Shamsher Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Nazir Ahmed Laway ended.

Since Jammu and Kashmir was under the President’s Rule at the time and there was no Assembly in place, the polls for the four seats could not be held. The J&K Assembly was formed in November last year after the first Assembly election for the Union Territory, which was established in 2019.