Jammu: Union Minister Jitendra Singh will file a nomination on Thursday from the Udhampur constituency for the Lok Sabha election. The seat goes to polls in the first phase on April 19.
Elections will be held in 102 Lok Sabha seats in 17 states and four Union Territories in this phase.
Jitendra Singh performed puja at his residence in Jammu, ahead of filing his nomination from Udhampur (J&K) as a BJP candidate. According to the Election Commission of India, the nomination for Udhampur Constituency can be filed by March 27, and the withdrawal of the nomination can be done by April 2.
With a 46 percent vote share in 2019, the BJP secured both the seats in the Jammu region. Dr Jitendra Singh, Union Minister, won the Udhampur Constituency in 2019 by a margin of 3,57,252 votes. With 724,311 votes, Dr Jitendra Singh defeated Vikramaditya Singh, the Congress candidate, by 367,059 votes.
Dr Singh also won the 2014 Lok Sabha election from the Udhampur constituency with a margin of 60,976 (5.9%) votes by defeating former Congress leader Gulam Nabi Azad.
Earlier, Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh expressed hope from the first-time voters of Jammu & Kashmir. The Union Minister said "We have expectations from all first-time voters. The picture has drastically changed since 2014. This city was so deprived of roads that folk songs were made in Dogri."
"In the last 10 years, roads were constructed in Udhampur under PMGSY. Three medical colleges have opened. A radio station and even a passport office have now opened up here," he added. On March 1, the BJP announced Dr Jitendra Singh will contest Lok Sabha polls from Udhampur and Jugal Kishor Sharma from Jammu.
Along with Udhampur in the first phase of elections, 39 seats in Tamil Nadu, 12 in Rajasthan, 8 in Uttar Pradesh, and 6 in Madhya Pradesh will go to the polls.
Five seats in Uttarakhand, Assam and Maharashtra, four seats in Bihar, three in West Bengal, two in Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya and one seat in Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Jammu and Kashmir, Lakshadweep and Puducherry will also go to polls on April 19.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP-led National Democratic Party (NDA) won a total of 303 seats, leaving Congress behind at 52 seats.
Polling for the Lok Sabha elections will be conducted in seven phases across the nation from April 19 to June 1. Votes will be counted on June 4.Union Minister Jitendra Singh performs puja at his residence in Jammu.
