Doda, Aug 30 (KNO): After the withdrawal of nomination papers by Advocate Syed Asim Hashmi, an independent candidate from Doda West Assembly Constituency, the field is now open for the faceoff between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress candidates in the first phase of assembly polls, slated on September 18.
Hashmi, a District Development Councillor (DDC) from Gundna Doda, had defeated Shakti Raj Parihar in the DDC elections in 2020 and had he been in the fray the votes were all set to get divided among three major candidates.
As per the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), a total of eight candidates are in the fray while only two among them are seen as major candidates, who will have a direct contest.
Talking to media persons after withdrawing his nomination papers, Hashmi, alongwith Congress candidate Dr. Pardeep Kumar, said that it was for the larger interest of the area that he decided to withdraw the nomination papers.
The Doda West Assembly Constituency was carved out of the old Doda constituency and few parts of Ramban and Bhaderwah constituencies were also added to it during the delimitation exercise.
Advocate Hashmi termed the composition of Doda West constituency to help BJP candidates.
Now, it will not be a cake walk for BJP's Shakti Parihar and he will have to work hard to defeat the Congress candidate, he said.
Shakti, who defeated Congress Party's Abdul Majid Wani and National Conference's Khalid Najeeb Suharwardy in 2014 from Doda, has remained a Minister of State in PDP-BJP coalition government in the past and enjoys a clean image among people of the area.
During his tenure as MLA followed by MoS, his behaviour with state government employees and the general public remained good, which is even appreciated by his arch rivals.
Dr. Pardeep, a Professor in University of Jammu, is new to politics and had last year joined the Congress party under the then PCC president Vikar Rasool Wani. He has been given the mandate for his clean image and being young.
Pertinently, Congress is contesting the polls from the seat while entering into a pre-poll alliance—(KNO)