NAVVNEET DUBEY
Jammu: Banking on her late father’s goodwill and public sympathy, BJP candidate Devyani Rana is likely to sail through in Nagrota by-election even as ten candidates remain in the fray for polls on November 11. None of the candidates withdrew their application for the assembly by-election on the last day of withdrawing nomination papers today.
The by-election was necessitated in Nagrota by the demise of BJP legislator Devender Singh Rana on October 31 last year. Now the BJP has fielded his daughter Devyani Rana as party nominee who is likely to have smooth sailing on the back of sympathy wave and development work carried out by her late father. Devyani’s father Devender Singh Rana had defeated National Conference candidate Joginder Singh by 30,472 votes in the 2024 assembly elections. Earlier, Rana had won the seat in the 2014 assembly polls on the NC ticket.
The Congress has backed out of the race, leaving the seat for its alliance partner National Conference (NC) for a “bigger” cause to drub the BJP. The constituency has a significant Gujjar and Rajput population.
Devyani Rana is pitted against National Conference candidate and District Development Council member Shamim Begum and BJP rebel and president of J&K Panchayat Conference Anil Sharma who is fighting as an independent. Former minister Harsh Dev Singh of J&K National Panthers Party (India) is among the other prominent faces from the constituency. There are four other independents in the fray as well as AAP leader Joginder Singh.
The Nagrota Assembly constituency has a total of 95,573 voters, including 49,557 men and 46,016 women. The last election in 2024 saw a voter turnout of 77.27 percent. At that time, 75,415 voters cast their ballots, of which 73,798 were declared valid.
30,340 male and 36,217 female voters of the area exercised their franchise and made BJP candidate Devendra Rana victorious with record votes and this time BJP has made Devendra Rana’s daughter Devyani Rana its candidate. Earlier, 12 candidates had filed nominations for the Nagrota assembly constituency, out of which the nominations of two candidates were rejected due to flaws.
Ten candidates are in the fray included Gulzar Hussain, Anil Sharma and Shah Mohammadas s independents, Aam Aadmi Party candidate Jogendra Singh, Devyani Rana from BJP, Shamim Begum from NC, Qari Zaheer Abbas Bhatti from All India Forward Bloc, Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party: Bodhraj, Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (India)-Harshdev Singh, Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (Bhim)- Naresh Kumar Chib
Meanwhile, Rajesh Kumar Assistant Commissioner Revenue Jammu has said that none of the candidates withdrew their nominations today on last of withdrawing nominations and now there are 10 candidates in fray for Nagrota assembly by-election.
