BJP releases third list of 29 candidates for J&K Assembly polls

New Delhi, Aug 27 (IANS) The BJP on Tuesday released the third list of 29 candidates for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections. 

Of the 29 names announced in the third list, 10 candidates will try their luck in the second phase while the rest of the 19 will be in the fray in the third phase of polls.

With 15 names in the first list, one in the second and 29 in the third list, the party has so far announced 45 candidates.

The party has also unveiled the names of its 40 star campaigners who will led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The party's star campaigners include Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP president J.P. Nadda and Union Ministers including Nitin Gadkari, Manohar Lal Khattar, G. Kishan Reddy, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Jitendra Singh .

The BJP has fielded Devender Singh Rana from Nagrota, Ashok Bhatt from Habbakadal, Mohammad Akram Chaudhary from Gulabgarh, Kuldeep Raj Dubey from Reasi, Baldev Raj Sharma from Shri Mata Vaishno Devi, Thakur Randhir Singh from Kalakote-Suderbani, Chowdhary Zulfikar Ali from Budhal (ST), Mohd.Iqbal Malik from Thannamandi (ST), Syed Mushtaq Ahmed Bukhari from Surankote (ST), Chowdhary Abdul Ghani from Poonch Haveli, Murtaza Khan from Mendhar (ST), Pawan Gupta from Udhampur West, Balwant Singh Mankotia from Chenani.

Other candidates who have been fielded are Sunil Bhardwaj from Ramnagar (SC), Jeevan Lal from Bani, Satish Sharma from Billawar, Darshan Singh from Basohli, Rajeev Jasrotia from Jasrota, Vijay Kumar Sharma from Hiranagar, Devinder Kumar Maniyal from Ramgarh (SC), Surjit Singh Slathia from Samba, Chandra Prakash Ganga from Vijaypur, Ghru Ram Bhagat from Suchetgarh (SC), Narinder Singh Raina from R. S. Pura Jammu South, Yudhvir Sethi from Jammu East, Arvind Gupta from Jammu West, Shyam Lal Sharma from Jammu North, Mohan Lal Bhagat from Akhnoor and Rajeev Sharma from Chhamb.

The elections to the Legislative Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir are scheduled in three phases on September 18, 25 and October 1.

The counting of votes will be taken up on October 4.

Earlier, the BJP had released a list of 44 candidates for all three phases of polls but later trimmed it to 15.

--IANS

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