Battle of Rajputs brewing between BJP and Congress in J&K's Udhampur-Doda

Srinagar: Slated to go to polls on April 19 in the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections, the Udhampur-Doda parliamentary constituency in Jammu is set to witness a bilateral contest with battle lines drawn between Rajput candidates of the BJP and the Congress.

While the BJP has re-nominated Jitendra Singh, Minister of State (MoS) in the PMO for the third term, the Congress has fielded Choudhary Lal Singh, a controversial politician who rejoined the grand old party after a hiatus of a decade.

Lal Singh was a cabinet minister in the BJP-PDP alliance in the erstwhile state when he was forced to resign over his participation in a rally organized to support those arrested in connection with the gang-rape and murder case of an 8-year-old Muslim Bakkarwal girl in Kathua district in 2018.

In 2014, he had resigned from the Congress after the party denied him a poll ticket from Udhampur. The two-time Udhampur MP had then joined the BJP.

After leaving the BJP in 2019, Lal Singh launched his own party and contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Udhampur again but finished fourth with mere 20,000 votes.

Political analyst Zafar Chaudhary believes that Congress and Lal Singh both needed each other. “Lal Singh didn’t have a party and the Congress didn’t have a formidable candidate in Udhampur. However, his controversial past will be a challenge for the Congress,” he told DH.

Last year, Kashmir-based National Conference (NC) and People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which are part of I.N.D.I.A. bloc, issued public statements to ensure Lal Singh was kept off stage during Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra over his participation in a 2018 rally in support of the Kathua rape accused.

Jitendra Singh, who has emerged as the face of the BJP in Jammu region in recent years, is highlighting various developmental works in the past 10 years in his Udhampur constituency to seek a third term from the people. Besides being a medical doctor, Singh also worked as a newspaper columnist prior to joining the BJP.

In 2008, he was appointed spokesperson of the Shri Amarnathji Sangharsh Samiti, an umbrella organisation of right wing parties during the Amarnath land transfer controversy. He took premature retirement from his position as professor of endocrinology in Government Medical College, Jammu, to join the BJP in 2012.

Since 1967, the Congress won six consecutive times in the Udhampur constituency, which is the second-largest Lok Sabha constituency in J&K, covering parts of the Himalayan mountain range and including five districts.

However, in the 1996, 1998 and 1999 general elections, BJP’s Chaman Lal Gupta won the seat three times successively before Lal Singh wrestled it back in 2004 and won for the second time in 2009. But riding on the Modi wave Jitendra Singh emerged victorious both in 2014 and 2019.

Over the years, prominent figures like Karan Singh from the royal family of Kashmir have contested and represented this constituency. The constituency comprises Doda, Kishtwar, Kathua, Udhampur and Ramban districts. While Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban are Muslim majority districts, Udhampur and Kathua have Hindus in greater numbers.

The BJP tends to draw its maximum strength from Udhampur and Kathua. The combined population of Udhampur and Kathua districts is more than the rest of the three districts, according to the 2011 Census. The Congress party is banking on Muslim voters to rally behind them.