BJP kicks start campaign on Jammu Lok Sabha seat by raking up abrogation of Art 370

Abrogation of Article 370 will be a big political issue during the campaign for the Jammu-Reasi Lok Sabha seat as the ruling BJP today raked up this issue after the party candidate Jugal Kishore Sharma filed his nomination papers.

Union Minister Anurag Thakur, who especially came from Delhi to join Jugal Kishore Sharma in filing his nomination papers, minced no words in attacking opposition parties for abusing Article 370 to deprive people of Jammu and Kashmir of basic fundamental and democratic rights.

Thakur asserted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has achieved a lot for Jammu and Kashmir, including the end of discriminatory Article 370 and the eradication of the menace of terrorism, and separatism. "This is considered the biggest success of the BJP government", Thakur said during a road show with Jugal Kishore Sharma before filing nomination papers.

Thakur mentioned that under Modi's government, Jammu and Kashmir have seen a lot of development and a strong response to terror attacks from Pakistan, unlike before.

He explained that someone asked him what Modi has done for Jammu and Kashmir. Thakur replied that the region got rid of Article 370, stone-throwing incidents, terrorism, and separatism, and saw a boost in development projects.

Thakur claimed that there has been a big decrease in terror attacks, civilian deaths, and injuries to security forces since Modi became Prime Minister.

 Jugal Kishore is in the fray to make a hat trick on this seat

BJP candidate Jugal Kishore Sharma has won this seat in two successive Lok Sabha elections in 2014 and 2019.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections Jugal Kishore Sharma got 8,58,066 votes which was 57.81 percent of the total votes polled in that election. His nearly rival Raman Bhalla of Congress got 5,55,191 which was 37.4 percent of the total polled votes.
This time both the candidates are also in the fray but after the completion of the delimitation exercise in twin border districts of Poonch and Rajouri have been cut off from this seat. In the 2019 Lok Sabha Congress candidate Raman Bhalla had got nearly 3 lakh votes from both districts which are now part of the newly shaped Anantnag- Rajouri parliamentary constituency.

First elections in J&K after abrogation of Article 370
The parliamentary elections are going to be held for the first time in Jammu and Kashmir after the erstwhile state was bifurcated into two union territories and its special status under Article 370 was revoked in August 2019.

In 2019, Kishore defeated Congress candidate Raman Bhalla by a margin of 3,02,875 votes. He defeated Congress candidate Madan Lal Sharma by over 2.57 lakh votes in 2014.

The Jammu Lok Sabha constituency is going to polls in the second phase on April 26. The last date to file the nominations is April 4 and the last date for withdrawal of candidature is April 8.
Jammu and Kashmir BJP president Ravinder Raina and other senior party leaders, including former ministers and legislators, also attended the roadshow and then addressed the public meeting and sought votes for Jugal Kishore.