Early Times Report
Jammu, Mar 31: Although the Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) has fielded three-time MLA Ghulam Mohammad Saroori from the prestigious Udhampur-Doda Parliamentary seat but the constituency is set to witness a straight contest between the BJP and Congress.
As the Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh is in the fray to make a hat trick on this seat, this Parliamentary constituency has become prestigious for the ruling BJP.
While Dr. Jitendra Singh is highlighting his achievements during his last two tenures as representative of this constituency, Choudhary Lal Singh is raking up issues like Dogra identity and Dogra honour to fight the BJP.
On the day while filing his nomination papers, Lal Singh without any hesitation highlighted the issue of Dogra pride to emerge as the voice of Dogra in Jammu province.
For both Dr. Jitendra Singh and Choudhary Lal Singh the real fight is in Kathua and Udhampur districts where BJP has got overwhelming support from the people in two successive Lok Sabha elections in 2014 and 2019.
The BJP has pressed all its resources to retain its ground in The prestigious Udhampur-Doda Parliamentary seat is set to witness a straight contest between the BJP and Congress.
This Parliamentary constituency has become prestigious for the ruling BJP.
On the day while filing his nomination papers, Congress candidate Choudhary Lal Singh without any hesitation highlighted the issue of Dogra pride.
For both Dr. Jitendra Singh and Choudhary Lal Singh the real fight is in Kathua and Udhampur districts
As far as Choudhary Lal Singh is concerned, Kathua is also his strength. Being a native of the district and representing the Basholi assembly segment of this district thrice, Lal Singh is also utilizing all his resources to emerge on the top.
In two previous elections, Congress has failed to get respectable votes from the Kathua district. It was all due to the party’s performance in Kathua district that the BJP won two successive Lok Sabha elections on this seat.
Choudhary Lal Singh, 65, filed his nomination papers, including the mandatory affidavit, from the Udhampur-Kathua Lok Sabha constituency last week.
He won the Udhampur seat twice on Congress ticket in 2004 and 2009, besides being a three-time former MLA. He was also a minister in the previous PDP-BJP government in Jammu and Kashmir that collapsed in June 2018 after the national party pulled out of the alliance.
Several months before the government’s fall, Choudhary Lal Singh resigned from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and floated his own party. | 