YOGESH
Jammu Tawi, Sep 06: The Ramban assembly constituency is heading for a tri-angular contest among Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and INDI alliance candidates while a discontented rebel of BJP also emerges as third strong candidate in the segment.
Figures available suggest that there are 98099 electorates including 50982 male and 47116 female voters besides a transgender are eligible to vote in the first phase of Assembly elections for Ramban Assembly constituency which will go for polls on September 18.
The election commission setup 196 polling stations across the constituency of which just five came under urban category while 189 were in rural areas.
The Ramban seat was reserved for scheduled caste till 2014, when BJP's Neelam Kumar Langeh won with 25,349 votes. The runner up was Dr. Chaman Lal of JKNC party. The margin of victory was 5,364 votes. In 2008, Ashok Kumar of Congress party won with 21,779 votes. The runner up was Bali Bhagat of BJP party. The margin of victory was: 10,319 votes.
In recent Lok Sabha elections, BJP bagged 33047 votes while NC-Supported Congress candidate got 26481 votes.
This time BJP filed its district president Rakesh Singh Thakur, who is facing a direct challenge from his deputy Suraj Singh Parihar. Parihar is contesting as Independent after facing humiliation and denied party mandate despite his massive rally from Ramban to Jammu. Parihar's entire campaign focused on targeting BJP leadership decisions and he enjoys support of people, while BJP's official candidate banking upon party's loyal workers.
The INDI alliance candidate Arjun Singh Raju of National Conference is also very popular among the people. Being NC candidate and enjoying support of Congress, Raju is attracting lots of voters and Muslim and schedule caste population is also supporting him.
