Modi to address election rally in Jammu’s Kathua

BJP’s star campaigner Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address an election rally in Kathua district of Jammu on April 14.

In his second rally in the region in two weeks, Modi will seek votes for Minister of State (MoS) in PMO Jitendra Singh, who is seeking a second term from the Udhampur-Doda Lok Sabha constituency, 

Earlier, he had addressed an election rally in Akhnoor on March 28 in support of sitting BJP MP and candidate from Jammu-Poonch seat, Jugal Kishore Sharma. Elections to the Jammu seat is scheduled on April 11 while voting for Udhampur will be held on April 18.

In 2014, Modi had visited the Mata Vaishno Devi temple in Katra before addressing a rally in support of Jitendra Singh at Hiranagar. Singh had defeated Congress stalwart and former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Ghulam Nabi Azad by a margin of over 60,000 votes. 

Riding the 'Modi wave', the BJP had won both seats in the Jammu region in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections while it had emerged victorious in the lone Lok Sabha seat in the Ladakh region by a mere 34 votes against the Congress. 

There is no word on whether the BJP’s star campaigner will address any rallies in Kashmir valley and Ladakh regions this time.

The BJP is facing growing opposition in Hindu majority Jammu province. The party, which won 25 of Jammu’s 37 Assembly seats in 2014 by promising to further the interests of the province, is being accused of giving up on everything it stood for.

Confronted with anti-incumbency in Jammu, the state BJP leadership is optimistic that Modi’s rallies will create a wave in favour of the party.