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| Nagrota’s habit: no repetition | | Rebels take sleep out of official nominees’ eyes | | ZAFAR CHOUDHARY
Jammu, Nov 28: In the backyard of winter Capital City, contest is getting intensive in Nagrota constituency between National Conference, BJP and Congress and the challenges are more from the rebels than from opponents.
After Bhaderwah, Nagrota is one such constituency in Jammu and Kashmir which has a record of going for change every election. Till 1983, this constituency was named as Jandrah Gharota but in any case Nagrota has refused to repeat any candidate who once won from there. Even if someone contested after a break of one term the constituency still preferred a new face over the tried one.
Traditionally a Congress bastion Nagrota slipped out of the party hands in 1996 when it elected National Conference nominee in 1996 and BJP nominee in 2002. The trio of BJP, NC and Congress are though locked in a tough contest but independents, rebels and nominees of Panthers Party and BSP are all set cut into traditional vote banks to push the constituency towards ‘surprise results’.
With kicking off of poll process in Jammu district which goes to polls in last phase on December 24, the election activity is fast picking up in the constituency which is one of the vast and irregularly drawn assembly segments of Jammu district. The population distribution is also a mix of different castes and communities even as Hindu Rajputs and Muslim Gujjars emerge as two major vote blocks and the parties usually consider this factor in deciding their nominees.
National Conference has fielded the scion of Royal Dogra dynasty Ajat Shatru Singh from Nagrota. Before taking on the opponents Ajat faces a challenge from party rebel Balbir Singh Manhas who has broken away from National Conference and is also a Rajput.
Congress has repeated Chowdhary Abdul Hamid who has finished third in 2002 elections. The Congress nominee again has a massive challenge posed by the party rebel Shiv Dev Singh who has entered the fray as an independent candidate. A die hard Congress worker, Shiv Dev Singh had won Nagrota in 1987 and is since then making desperate attempts to recapture the constituency. He was denied party ticket in 2002. However, this time he refused accept the high command decision lying down and raised a banner of revolt against the official nominee.
BJP has repeated Jugal Kishore who saved party from embarrassment in 2002 elections by a narrow margin. Jugal was the only BJP members in the dissolved Legislative Assembly. Jugal Kishore was elected from this constituency in 2002 defeating Ajat Shatru Singh of National Conference by a margin of 67 votes only. Jugal had polled 10,653 votes while as Ajat Singh got 10,586 votes. The total electorate was 62,238 and overall votes polled were 39,723. The poll percentage was recorded at 63.72.
Nagrota Assembly segment has 64,705 registered voters (including 475 service electors) out of which 33,598 are male and 31,107 female voters. The total number of polling stations being set up is 64, as compared to 60 set up in 2002 Assembly elections.
This constituency was known as Jindra Gharotra till 1983 and was represented by Ronak Singh of National Conference in 1962 elections and Ranjit Singh of the Congress won the 1967 election. Another Congress candidate Shanta Bharati won the 1972 polls. Dhan Raj Bhargotra of Janta Party represented the constituency in 1977 while as Bhalwan Singh of Congress wrested Nagrota in 1983 and Shiv Dev Singh in 1987 elections.
Riding high on the National Conference wave, a political novice Ajat Shatru Singh was elected from Nagrota in 1996 polls. He remained a Minister in Dr Farooq Abdullah cabinet for full six years till 2002. However, on fall of National Conference in 2002, the next year Ajat Shatru switched over to the Congress and earlier this year returned to the NC fold exactly on poll eve. |
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