Srinagar: With the Election Commission of India sounding poll bugle for the Lok Sabha polls, political parties in Kashmir Valley kicked off their campaigning in the Valley. National Conference, People's Democratic Party, People's Conference Apni Party and Bharatiya Janata Party- all have started campaigning for the elections as these parties are holding meetings with activists.
The Lok Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir will be held in five phases, and the counting of the votes will take place on June 4. Jammu and Kashmir has not seen Assembly elections since the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019.
Though the parties, including NC, PDP, BJP and Apni Party, are yet to announce candidates for the three seats of Kashmir, their leaders have kicked off campaigns in districts and towns. BJP has started booth-level meetings across Jammu and Kashmir with its workers, NC started its poll campaign from Kulgam district for the Anantnag-Rajouri parliament seat. The PDP held a district-level meeting in Anantnag town to mobilise its workers.
The People's Conference was the first party in Kashmir to announce Sajad Lone as its candidate for the Baramulla-Kupwara seat. For the past month, Lone has been meeting workers and taking out rallies in the Kupwara district where his party says he has the strong support of the voters. Lone's poll battle is against the National Conference, which is yet to decide on the candidature against the National Conference.
Apni Party held a meeting of its senior leaders in Srinagar to select nominees and drafting of a manifesto for the upcoming elections. A senior leader of the party, who is likely to contest the elections from Baramulla, told ETV Bharat that in a week the party leadership will announce candidates and manifesto.
National Conference spokesman Imran Nabi Dar told ETV Bharat that the party vice-president Omar Abdullah kicked off the poll campaign from the Damhal Hanjipora segment of the Kulgam district. He said the manifestos and announcement of candidates will announced soon. PDP spokesman Najmu Saqib said that the party held a district-level meeting of leaders and activists in Anantnag town.
He said that the party will declare candidates and manifestos next week. BJP spokesman Altaf Thoker said that the party leaders led by the president of the J&K unit Ravinder Raina kicked off the poll campaign from the Anantnag constituency a week ago. "Our party already launched the poll campaign as we are holding booth level, district level meetings on all the five seats of Jammu and Kashmir," Thoker said. Congress party leaders said that its leadership will begin the campaigning though the district-level heads are already meeting the workers.
