Jammu: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will begin preparations for the upcoming elections to the four Rajya Sabha seats from Jammu and Kashmir by holding a core group meeting in Jammu on Saturday.
The Election Commission had announced on September 25 that polling for the four seats, lying vacant for more than four years, will take place on October 24.
BJP spokesperson Girdhari Lal Raina said the meeting, scheduled at the party headquarters at 10 am, will be chaired by BJP national general secretary and J&K in-charge Tarun Chugh. “The meeting will deliberate on various important issues,” Raina said, but declined to comment on possible candidates.
According to party sources, the process of finalising nominees will formally begin during the meeting. “The Rajya Sabha polls and potential candidates will be discussed, and three to four names are likely to come up,” a source said.
Among the names being speculated are former J&K BJP chief Ravinder Raina, former deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh, and a woman leader.
The agenda will also cover the prevailing political situation in the Union Territory as well as preparations for the upcoming Assembly bypolls in Nagrota and Budgam.
Nominations for the Rajya Sabha elections close on October 13, with counting scheduled for the evening of October 24, an hour after polling ends.
The four seats have been vacant since February 2021, when the terms of Mir Mohammad Fayaz, Shamsher Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Nazir Ahmed Laway expired. At the time, Jammu and Kashmir was under President’s Rule and without an Assembly, delaying the elections.
The present Assembly was constituted in November last year, following the first legislative elections in the Union Territory since its creation in 2019.
