Jammu, : Since the National Conference (NC) and Congress are having a friendly contest, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is slightly having an edge on Bhaderwah Assembly constituency in a triangular contest in the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
The 2014 winning candidate Daleep Singh Parihar, who has a good reputation among the downtrodden section of society irrespective of their religion, is up against Congress party’s Nadeem Sharief Niaz and NC’s Sheikh Mebooba Iqbal.
As per the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) there are 10 candidates in the fray including the candidates from BJP, Congress, NC, Bahujan Samaj Party, J&K Apni Party, Shiv Sena, J&K All Alliance Democratic Party and four independents.
According to the data issued by Election Commission of India, a total of 124568 electorates are eligible to vote which include 63944 male and 60618 female and six transgender voters.
This constituency will go for polls during the first phase of Assembly elections on September 18 alongside 23 other constituencies of Chenab valley and South Kashmir.
Traditionally, this constituency has remained a stronghold of the Congress party but NC also had control over it for a longer time in the past.
After 2002 elections, Congress party emerged a major player and even former chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad also got elected to Legislative Assembly from Bhaderwah constituency after he took over reins of J&K from Mufti Muhammad Sayeed during PDP-Congress coalition government in 2005.
In 2014, things took a turn and the Modi wave swept Chenab valley like other parts of Jammu region and Bhaderwah was no different when Daleep Singh Parihar emerged as the winner.
At that point of time, Parihar’s win was being attributed to the division of Muslim votes between Congress, NC and PDP while BJP took the maximum of votes of Hindus which helped the saffron party to win.
This time also, NC and Congress—both have fielded their candidates for a friendly fight, but there are chances that BJP may again take advantage of division of votes.
There is another reason which is a major cause of concern among the voters. Congress candidate Nadeem Sharief Niaz hails from Bhalessa area whereas NC candidate Sheikh Mehbooba Iqbal is from Bhaderwah town.
People of both the areas hardly vote for a candidate from another region whereas a BJP candidate has footings in both the areas and will get the votes from either side, which will also benefit him.
The Ghulam Nabi Azad led Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) candidate Muhammad Aslam Goni withdrew his nomination form on August 30, which will somehow stop the further division of votes, especially from Bhaderwah—