On the eight seats of Chenab valley going to polls in the first phase of Jammu and Kashmir elections, the National Conference-Congress alliance is hoping to tip the scales in its favour after Democratic Progressive Azad Party leaders withdrew from the contest in four seats, while the Bharatiya Janata Party and People's Democratic Party are going all out to checkmate their rivals.
The eight assembly segments of Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban along with 16 seats spread across four districts of south Kashmir -- Anantnag, Pulwama, Shopian and Kulgam -- are going to polls in the first of the three-phased elections on September 18.
A total of 219 candidates, including 64 in Chenab valley, are in the fray. Among the 64 candidates, seven are former ministers, four women and 25 independents.
While 10 candidates are in the fray for Bhaderwah, nine each are in Doda and Inderwal, eight each in Doda West and Ramban, seven each in Kishtwar and Banihal and six in Padder-Nagseni. Doda West and Padder-Nagseni are the two newly created constituencies.
Both the National Conference and Congress have fielded candidates in Banihal, Bhaderwah and Doda under a 'friendly contest', while a rebel NC leader is fighting as an independent from Inderwal and two BJP rebels are also trying their luck from Ramban and Padder-Nagseni constituencies.
Four of the six candidates of the DPAP -- former Advocate General Mohammad Aslam Goni (Bhaderwah), Fatima Begum (Inderwal), Asif Ahmad Khanday (Banihal) and Girdhari Lal Bhau (Ramban) -- withdrew from the contest after party chairman Ghulam Nabi Azad decided not to campaign due to 'health issues.'
The withdrawal of the candidature by DPAP leaders on the last day on August 30 is seen as a boost to the NC-Congress alliance.
The BJP is banking on sympathy wave for 29-year-old Shagun Parihar, whose father Ajit Parihar and uncle Anil Parihar were killed by terrorists in November 2018, to retain the Kishtwar seat.
The saffron party is facing formidable challenge from NC leader and former minister Sajjad Kitchloo who had won the seat twice in 2002 and 2008 elections before losing to the BJP's Sunil Sharma in the last assembly polls held in 2014.
PDP leader and former MLC Firdous Tak is among the other prominent candidates vying to get support of the voters for his election to the assembly.
Sharma, a former minister, is fielded by the BJP from Padder-Nagseni where he is facing NC's Pooja Thakur, the sitting chairperson of District Development Council Kishtwar. BJP rebel candidate Rakesh Gosawani alias 'Rocky' and PDP's Sandesh Kumar are the other prominent faces in the contest from the seat.
Former Pradesh Congress Committee president and ex-minister Vikar Rasool Wani, who is eyeing a hat-trick from Banihal constituency, is facing a major challenge from NC's Sjjad Shaheen and PDP's Imtiyaz Shan.
A multi-cornered contest is expected in Inderwal constituency where former minister and three-time MLA Ghulam Mohammad Saroori is fighting as an independent candidate after he was denied ticket by DPAP which he had joined after leaving Congress in support of Azad in September 2022.
Saroori, who had Inderwal seat for three consecutive terms in 2002, 2008 and 2014 elections, is facing National Conference rebel Pyare Lal Sharma, Sheikh Zafarullah of the Congress and BJP's Tariq Hussain Keen.
Former BJP minister Shakti Raj Parihar, who lost District Development Council elections from two Doda seats in 2020, is contesting from Doda West constituency, facing challenge from Pardeep Kumar of Congress, Tanveer Hussain of PDP and Abdul Ghani of DPAP. Meenakshi Kalra is fighting as an independent from the seat.
Former BJP MLA Daleep Singh Parihar is locked in a triangular contest with Congress leader Nadeem Sharief and former IAS officer Sheikh Mehboob Iqbal of the National Conference from Bhaderwah constituency of Doda.
The Aam Aadmi Party, which is contesting Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir for the first time, has fielded Vikram Rathore, while the BSP is banking on woman candidate Meenakshi Bhagat from the seat. Parihar had wrested the seat from Congress in 2014 elections.
Two former ministers Khalid Najid Suharwardy (NC) and Abdul Majid Wani (DPAP) are two prominent faces from Doda assembly segment. Suhardwardy had won the seat in 1997 by-elections, while Wani won the seat in 2002 and 2008. BJP's Shakti Parihar had won the seat in 2014.
BJP's Gajay Singh Rana, Congress nominee Riaz Ahmad, PDP's Mansoor Ahmad Batt and AAP's Mehraj Malik are among other contestants from the seat.
A keen contest among new faces is on the cards in Ramban constituency where BJP's Rakesh Singh Thakur is fighting NC's Arjun Singh Raju and party's rebel candidate Suraj Singh Parihar.
The seat was last won by BJP's Neelam Kumar Langeh who was denied mandate by the party this time.
In the last assembly elections held in 2014, the BJP had won four seats -- Kishtwar, Ramban, Bhaderwah and Doda, while the Congress had got Banihal and Inderwal constituencies.
Two assembly constituencies were added to the region in 2022 after the delimitation exercise following reorganization of the erstwhile state.
