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Srinagar: Hours after its release, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday withdrew its first list of 44 candidates for the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir assembly polls.
The party had named 36 candidates from the Jammu region and eight from the Kashmir Valley, including two Kashmiri Pandits, Veer Saraf and Ashok Bhat, nominated from the Shangus and Habbakadal constituencies, respectively.
Sources said the list was withdrawn because only the names from the first phase were meant to be released, but the party mistakenly included candidates for the other two phases as well.
In the now-withdrawn list, the party had dropped senior leaders, including former deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh and former ministers Sat Paul Sharma, Priya Sethi and Sham Lal Choudhary.
The list included senior leaders who had left parties like the National Conference (NC), Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Congress, and Panthers Party.
Former minister Mushtaq Bukhari, who joined the party after leaving the National Conference was fielded from the Surankote constituency.
Murtaza Khan, previously associated with the PDP and a former lawmaker in the upper house was fielded from Mendhar. Former Congress minister Sham Lal Sharma was selected for the Jammu North constituency, while former NC leader Devender Singh Rana, brother of Union minister Dr. Jitender Singh was set to contest from the Nagrota constituency.
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