Even as the BJP has announced to repeat its sitting Lok Sabha members from two seats of Jammu province, constituents of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc in Jammu and Kashmir are yet to finalize the seat-sharing agreement.
While discussions are going on for the three Parliamentary segments of Kashmir Valley, the Congress is going to finalize candidates for two Lok Sabha seats of Jammu province as other constituents of INDIA bloc are ready to support the Grand-Old-Party on these two seats.
While former minister Raman Bhalla is a front-runner for the Jammu-Reasi Lok Sabha seat, the party is mulling over fielding veteran politician Choudhary Lal Singh, who is chairman of the Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan Party (DSSP), from Udhampur-Doda Lok Sabha seat against BJP candidate and Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh.
J&K Cong chief advocating for Lal Singh
The Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee chief Vikar Rasool Wani is strongly advocating for Choudhary Lal Singh's candidature for the Udhampur-Doda Lok Sabha seat.
Sources said that Wani has conveyed to the party's high command that Choudhary Lal Singh has the potential to face the challenge of BJP as well as that of Ghulam Nabi Azad.
Notably, the former BJP leader Choudhary Lal Singh had quit Congress in 2014 only due to Ghulam Nabi Azad who was given a mandate on the Udhampur-Doda seat by denying a ticket to Singh. Sources said that after forwarding panels of potential candidates for the Udhampur-Doda Lok Sabha seat, Wani has asked the central leadership of the party to start a dialogue with Lal Singh.
"By managing the Congress mandate for Choudhary Lal Singh, Wani also wanted to give a message to his former political mentor Ghulam Nabi Azad", sources said.
Lal Singh playing emotive card after being arrested by ED
Two-time Lok Sabha member Choudhary Lal Singh is playing an emotive card after being arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in November 2023 in a money laundering case.
Before he was arrested, Lal Singh was grilled by the officials of the ED in Jammu for three successive days in a case of alleged money laundering by RB Educational Trust – an educational society run by his family.
Some Congress leaders are unanimous in bringing Choudhary Lal Singh back into the party because they realized that Singh has emerged as a strong leader after he was arrested by the ED.
Lal Singh is a two-time MP from Udhampur-Doda seat
Congress leaders have reason to rope in Choudhary Lal Singh because he has won election on this seat twice. In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, Choudhary Lal Singh had defeated the then-sitting Union Minister and BJP stalwart Prof Chaman Lal Gupta on this seat.
Founder of the Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan Party (DSSP) Choudhary Lal Singh is a two-time Lok Sabha member and three-time MLA. Singh switched from Congress to the BJP in 2014 and was also a minister in the previous PDP-BJP government, which collapsed in June 2018.
Singh had been a two-time Lok Sabha member from Udhampur-Doda parliamentary constituency and a three-time MLA from Basohli, which is part of this Lok Sabha segment.
Last time, he was elected MLA during the 2014 assembly elections as a BJP nominee after he had quit the Congress and joined the Saffron Brigade. He was later inducted as a cabinet minister in the PDP-BJP coalition government.
Later, he floated his own party, Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan, and even contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from both the Jammu-Poonch and Udhampur-Kathua constituencies, but lost in both places.
