With the 2024 Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections around the corner, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to hit the poll campaign trail in support of his party candidates in the union territory on Saturday (September 14). PM Modi will address a mega rally in Jammu and Kashmir's Doda, the first visit by a prime minister to the district in the last 42 years.
Ahead of the Prime Minister's visit, multi-tier security has been deployed across the twin districts of Doda and Kishtwar, particularly around the venue, to ensure a peaceful and smooth conduct of the election rally. PM's rally will be held at the stadium in Doda town.
"Prime Minister Modi will hold his first election meeting in Doda. This will be a significant event as it marks the first visit of any Prime Minister to Doda in 42 years. The last prime ministerial visit to Doda was in 1982," said Union Coal and Mines Minister and BJP election in-charge for Jammu & Kashmir, G Kishan Reddy, on Friday in Samba.
On PM Modi's visit, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said, "There is a lot of excitement among the public as PM Modi has given priority to remote areas...In the past 10 years, a lot of development has taken place in Doda...No Prime Minister has visited Doda in the past 50 years. But after the visit of PM Modi, a message will go that PM Modi has worked a lot bringing remote areas at par with developed areas."
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is hoping that PM Modi's rally will give a boost to the party's campaign in the region where voting for eight Assembly seats in the three districts of the Chenab Valley — Doda, Kishtwar, and Ramban — is scheduled for September 18.
During the 2014 Assembly elections, PM Modi addressed a BJP poll rally in the Kishtwar district. "Since then, the people of Doda have been eagerly waiting to see and hear the Prime Minister," news agency PTI quoted a local leader as saying.
Jammu and Kashmir Elections
The BJP is contesting the Assembly polls on all 43 Assembly seats in the Jammu division. However, the party is contesting only 19 seats in the Kashmir Valley and skipped 28 seats. In the last J&K Assembly, the BJP had 25 MLAs.
Voting in the J-K Assembly elections will be held in three phases on September 18, September 25, and October 1. The counting of votes will take place on October 8. This is the first Assembly election in J&K in 10 years, and the first since the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A.
The Jammu region has long been a BJP stronghold, with the party winning all 25 of its seats from this region in the 2014 Assembly polls in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.