Elections-2014: BJP issues names of 45 candidates for J&K

Srinagar, 3 Nov: The Bharatiya Janata Party Monday issued the first list of 45 candidates for the Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections. According to a party statement, The names were finalized at a meeting of the central election committee in New Delhi, chaired by Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah and attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in addition to all other members of the committee.
Most of the sitting MLA’s of the party have been dropped while some new faces have been awarded mandate for the coming Assembly Elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
For Srinagar Assembly segments, the daughter of former National Conference leader Dr Hina Bhat have been given ticket for Amirakadal Constituency while Moti Koul will contest on party ticket from Habakadal. From Hazratbal the party has fielded Hakim Masood as its candidate while Ashok Bhat will contest from Khanyar Constituency.
Party senior leader Sofi Yousuf will contest from Pahalgam while from Devsar the party candidate will be Fayaz Ahmed Bhat. Mushtaq Noorabadi will be the party candidate from Noorabad constituency while from Home Shalibugh the ticket has been given to Ghulam Nabi Dar. Nazir Raina will contest from Kangan, Desh Kumar Nehru from Rafiabad and Ishfaq-ur-Rehman will be the BJP candidate from Karnah constituency.
The central election committee of BJP dropped 8 out of its 11 sitting legislators while most candidates fielded by the party are new faces. Ashok Khajuria, Chaman Lal Gupta, Baldev Raj Sharma, Master Lal Chand, Jagdish Raj Sapolia, Durga Das, Garu Ram Bhagat and Bharat Bhushan like political stalwarts were not awarded party tickets. Only two sitting members – Chaudhary Sham Lal and Chaudhary Sukhnandan were awarded mandates. Chaudhary Lal Singh has been fielded for Basohli seat in Kathua district of Jammu region.
Party senior leader and sitting MLA Chaman Lal Gupta told that he was not surprised as it was known to him that senior leaders will be dropped. He however said that he respects the decision of the party high command.