Udhampur: Twelve candidates are in the electoral fray for the Udhampur-Kathua-Doda Lok Sabha seat in Jammu and Kashmir, as the region gears up for the first phase of the Lok Sabha Elections.
News agency KNO quoted Dr. Rakesh, the Returning Officer (RO) for the 4-Udhampur Parliamentary Constituency, stating that none of the candidates withdrew their papers, leaving 12 candidates in the fray for the seat.
Earlier, 15 candidates, including BJP’s present Member of Parliament and MoS Dr. Jitendra Singh, and Congress party’s candidate and former MP Choudhary Lal Singh, along with their covering candidates, filed papers.
After scrutiny, the Returning Officer (RO) rejected the papers of three covering candidates from BJP, Congress, and BSP.
Those who remain in the fray include Amit Kumar of BSP, Balwan Singh of Jammu Kashmir National Panther Party (Bhim), Dr. Jitendera Singh of BJP, Ch Lal Singh of Congress, Ghulam Mohammad Saroori of Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP), Manoj Kumar of Ekam Sanatan Bharat Dal, Dr. Pankaj Sharma, Rajesh Manchanda, Sachin Gupta, Swarn Veer Singh, Mohd Ali Gujar, and Mehraj Din as Independent candidates.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Dr. Jitendra Singh won from Udhampur with a total of 724,311 votes. Vikramaditya Singh, the nominee of the Indian National Congress, received 367,059 votes. The Bharatiya Janata Party secured a majority of 61 percent in the polls. Similarly, in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Dr. Jitendra Singh had won from Udhampur, securing 487,369 votes. He defeated then Congress stalwart Ghulam Nabi Azad of the Indian National Congress with a margin of 60,976 votes. Azad received 426,393 votes.
(KNO)