JAMMU, Sept 13: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will kick off the J&K election campaign on Saturday with a rally in the Doda district.
Doda is among the seats in three districts of Chenab Valley that are going to polls on September 18.
During the 2014 Assembly elections, PM Modi addressed the BJP poll rally in the Kishtwar district. Party sources said the people of Doda had since then been demanding that they want to see and hear the PM.
“The choice of Doda as the venue for tomorrow’s election rally was made by the PM himself,” party sources said. The same sources said depending upon the availability of time, the PM could also address another election rally in the Jammu division on Saturday.
Parts of Poonch and Rajouri districts are also going to vote in the first phase of the 3-phased assembly election in J&K. BJP sources said the visit by the Prime Minister will boost the electoral prospects of party candidates in the UT.
A high alert has already been sounded in the entire Chenab Valley region with the security forces and the police maintaining their ubiquitous presence to secure the VVIP and the large number of people who turn out to hear him. The BJP has already said that its star campaigner, the Prime Minister, will visit J&K for electioneering in every phase of the Assembly elections.
The party is contesting all 43 Assembly seats in the Jammu division. In the last J&K assembly, BJP had 25 MLAs. PM Modi is also expected to visit the Valley on September 19 when he will address another BJP election rally in Srinagar city.
Voting in the three phases of J&K polls is being held on September 18, September 25, and October 1. The counting of votes will take place on October 8. J&K is seeing an Assembly election after 10 years and its first after the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A.
On September 19, the Prime Minister will address a mega-election rally at Sher-e-Kashmir Stadium in Srinagar.
The rally is expected to be a grand affair, with thousands of BJP supporters and locals anticipated to attend.
The event is being seen as a crucial moment in the run-up to the Assembly elections, which are expected to be held later this year.
Last month BJP devised a list of 40 leaders who will lead the election campaign in Jammu and Kashmir.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lead the BJP’s campaign in assembly elections, the first such democratic exercise after the state was made Union Territory in August 2019.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP national president J P Nadda, and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath were also included in the list of 40-star campaigners submitted by the party to the Election Commission for the first phase of assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, Manohar Lal Khattar, G Kishan Reddy, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Jitendra Singh, and former union ministers Anurag Thakur and Smriti Irani and Gen (Retd.) V K Singh besides Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma and former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur are other prominent faces who will visit Jammu and Kashmir during the campaigning.
The three-phased assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir are scheduled for September 18, 25, and October 1. The counting of votes will be taken up on October 4.
In a letter addressed to the Election Commission, BJP national general secretary and in-charge headquarters Arun Singh said the list of the 40-star campaigners of the party may be treated as valid for the remaining phases “unless we forward an amended list” within the prescribed time limit.
The list also included former BJP general secretary and recently appointed election in-charge for Jammu and Kashmir Ram Madhav, party national general secretary in charge Jammu and Kashmir Tarun Chugh, Jammu and Kashmir BJP chief Ravinder Raina, Member of Parliament Jugal Kishore Sharma, Rajya Sabha member Ghulam Ali Khatana, General secretary (organization) Ashok Kaul and Jammu and Kashmir BJP vice president Sofi Yousuf.
