Rebels likely to hurt BJP in Udhampur East

The Udhampur East constituency has become a talking point during the J&K Assembly elections as a strong BJP rebel is giving a tough time to the party’s official candidate.

The BJP had witnessed a major internal strife in the constituency when it allotted ticket to RS Pathania. Party’s former vice-president Pawan Khajuria, who had a long association with the party, rebelled and filed his nomination as an independent from the seat, which left many senior leaders upset.

The BJP immediately suspended Khajuria from the party membership “for an act of indiscipline in fighting elections against the official candidates of the party”. While Khajuria did not speak against the party, he launched attacks against Pathania several times during the campaign.

It has been learnt that several senior leaders even tried to pacify Khajuria and urged him to not compete with Pathania, which could divide the party’s vote bank in the constituency. What has become a cause of worry for the saffron party is that another BJP rebel Balwan Singh has been given ticket by the J&K Panthers Party. Balwan was also suspended from the party.

Pawan Khajuria has held several significant positions within the BJP and was known for his active campaigning for the party during the elections even in other states.

In the 2014 Assembly elections, the BJP had fielded Pawan Khajuria as its candidate for the Udhampur constituency. Even at that time, the party had witnessed an internal rift where party leader Pawan Kumar Gupta contested as an independent and won the seat. Gupta later joined the party and is now contesting from Udhampur West on the party ticket.

Meanwhile, RS Pathania, a lawyer by profession and a BJP spokesperson, had previously contested as an independent candidate from the Ramnagar constituency in 2008, losing to Harsh Dev Singh. He later joined the BJP and won the Ramnagar seat in the 2014 Assembly elections by defeating Harsh.

PDP’s Baqeel Singh, Bahujan Samaj Party’s Achhav Singh, independent Mohinder Singh, Shiv Sena’s (UBT) Sahil Gandotra and NC’s Sunil Verma are also contesting from the constituency.