The last-minute entry of Choudhary Lal Singh, who is being hounded by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), into the Congress has set the stage for a nip and tuck contest in the Udhampur seat in Jammu and Kashmir between him and Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh.
Firebrand Mr. Singh, a Dogra Rajput who founded the Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan Party (DSSP) in 2018 to protect Jammu’s indigenous identity, has been a two-time Member of Parliament (MP) from Udhampur on Congress tickets in the past.
Also read | In 2018, Choudhary Lal Singh defended those arrested in the rape and murder of the eight-year-old girl
Repeatedly questioned and arrested by the ED last year in an alleged money laundering case, Mr. Singh filed his nomination again representing the Congress this week, just six days after rejoining the party in New Delhi on March 20. He is an advocate of restoration of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, especially job and land security, in the form of Article 371.
In 2014, Mr. Singh had quit the Congress and joined the BJP to become a Cabinet Minister, only to resign in 2018 over the Kathua rape-cum-murder case controversy. He contested the 2019 Parliament polls on DSSP ticket, but ended up in fourth spot with around 19,000 votes.
BJP’s Dr. Singh, who rode high on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s wave in 2019, has an uphill task to repeat the dominating figures of the previous polls where he bagged 7.24 lakh votes (61.38% vote share) against 3.67 lakh votes by the runner-up from the Congress.
Re-orientation of Jammu and Kashmir’s polity after the abrogation of provisions of Article 370 has thrown up new factors in the electoral process in the Union Territory. The factors favouring Mr. Singh of the Congress this time is a fading away of National Panthers Party from the political landscape of Jammu, especially after the death of its supremo Bhim Singh in 2022.
The Udhampur seat has 16 Assembly segments from four districts of Kishtwar, Doda, Udhampur and Kathua. While eight Assembly segments of Kishtwar and Doda have a significant population of Muslims, eight others from Udhampur and Kathua have equally significant populations of Hindus.
No major regional party, like the National Conference (NC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is fielding any candidates in the Udhampur seat in a bid to consolidate Muslim and secular votes in favour of the Congress candidate. However, former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad’s Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) has decided to field G.M. Saroori, a former Minister with a support base in Muslim-dominated Doda and Kishtwar.
The factors favouring Dr. Singh is growing consolidation of Hindu votes, reflected in the rallies and events organised ahead of the inauguration of Ram Temple in Ayodhya this year. However, the consolidation in favour of the BJP has to face a major test of growing alienation in the plains of Kathua and Udhampur over the BJP’s moves like scrapping Roshni Act, which impacted a majority of farmers in the region.
Also, there is growing insecurity in these pockets over land and jobs after the initial jubilations over reading down of Article 370. Dr. Singh’s poll narrative veers around the abrogation of Article 370 and how it led to the “dawn of a new era of development and peace in the region” and sidelining of “exploitative three families” of Gandhis, Abdullahs and Muftis.
