 Sandeep Bhat
Early Times Report
Jammu, Oct 8: Even as senior leaders of the Jammu and Kashmir BJP have submitted their panel of candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections to the party high command, the central leadership has decided to take a final call only after weighing all pros and cons.
Highly placed party sources say the BJP high command has not given assurances to the visiting state leaders that the final candidates will necessarily be selected only from the panel presented by the local leadership. The timing makes the decision particularly sensitive, because the Election Commission of India has officially scheduled the biennial elections for the four vacant Rajya Sabha seats from Jammu & Kashmir on October 24, 2025, with polling to take place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and counting to begin at 5 p.m. the same day.
These four seats have been vacant since February 2021, when the terms of the previous members expired — namely, Mir Mohammad Fayaz, Shamsher Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad, and Nazir Ahmed Laway.
Because the terms ended at different times (some on February 10, some on February 15), the Election Commission has announced that the four seats will be filled through three separate elections (i.e. in different “categories”) on the same day, following legal precedent.
The BJP, therefore, faces a strategic choice. It must decide not only between the names in the submitted state panel, but also how to distribute its candidates across the separate categories, and consider the strength of rival parties in the Jammu & Kashmir Legislative Assembly.
Given the tight timeline and political calculations, the central leadership is said to be examining every angle — from electability in the Assembly vote to balance between regions and party factions — before giving the final nod. |
