Jammu and Kashmir is set to witness its first major electoral battle since the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A and bifurcation and downgrading of erstwhile J&K state into two Union Territories (UTs) by centre on August 5, 2019.
In Jammu and Kashmir, there are five parliamentary seats and the polling for five constituencies will be held in five phases.
Of the five Lok Sabha seats — three are currently held by the National Conference while BJP holds two others (Jammu and Udhampur seats).
Jammu and Kashmir has been under the central rule since the fall of PDP-BJP government in June 2018. The last assembly polls were held in Jammu and Kashmir in 2014.
A significant development since the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019 was the delimitation exercise completed in May 2022 as part of J&K Reorganisation Act. It revised the boundaries of 90 assembly and five parliamentary constituencies.
The Lok Sabha polls in the Union Territory will be held in the first five of the seven-phased elections : April 19 (Udhampur), April 26 (Jammu), May 7 (Anantnag-Rajouri), May 13 (Srinagar) and May 20 (Baramulla). The results will be announced on June 4.
From Udhampur LS seat, senior BJP leader and Union minister Jitendra Singh will be looking to make a hat-trick of wins as the BJP candidate.
A physician by profession, Singh retained the Udhampur Lok Sabha seat in 2019 defeating Congress’s Vikramaditya Singh, the grandson of erstwhile Maharaja Hari Singh, by a huge margin of 3,53,272 votes. In 2014, Singh had defeated former Union minister Ghulam Nabi Azad by 60,976 votes.
In Srinagar seat, the battle will be between National Conference and PDP, if later decides to contest from the seat after being denied any of the three Valley seats by NC.
The Srinagar seat is currently held by NC president and three-time former chief minister Farooq Abdullah since 2017 after winning the bye-election, necessitated by the resignation of PDP MP Tariq Hameed Karra who had wrested the seat from Abdullah in 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
Abdullah won the seat again in 2019 general elections, defeating his nearest PDP rival Aga Syed Mohsin by a margin of over 70,000 votes. Karra joined the Congress in February 2017.
The Anantnag-Rajouri seat, which covers Anantnag, Shopian and Kulgam districts of south Kashmir and most parts of the border districts of Rajouri and Poonch, has attracted the attention of every party whether it be BJP, NC, PDP or Congress. Everybody wants to contest from the seat.
The seat, which witnessed major redrawing by the delimitation panel, is presently held by National Conference leader and former judge Hasnain Masoodi who had wrested the seat from PDP president Mehbooba Mufti.