Baldev Kumar, a resident of Mohali, Punjab, Friday scripted history by becoming the first person from outside Jammu and Kashmir to contest parliamentary polls in the Union Territory when he filed his nomination papers from the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha constituency
Jammu and Kashmir Lok Sabha Election 2024: Baldev Kumar, a resident of Mohali in Punjab, has become the first ‘outsider’ to contest the Lok Sabha polls in Jammu and Kashmir following the abrogation of Article 370 which granted special privileges to the erstwhile state and its residents.
Kumar on Friday scripted history by becoming the first person from outside Jammu and Kashmir to contest parliamentary polls in the Union Territory when he filed his nomination papers from the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha constituency as an independent candidate.
Who is Baldev Kumar?
67-year-old Baldev Kumar, a resident of Naya Gaon area of Mohali in Punjab, describes himself as having a deep connection to Jammu and Kashmir, especially the Valley, where he volunteered during the 2014 floods, sponsored education of students, and facilitated patients from Kashmir who wanted to avail medical facilities in Punjab.
“I worked for the people during the 2014 floods, I have sponsored the education of a number of students, I have facilitated patients from Kashmir when they go to Punjab for medical check-ups and kept a kothi (house) for them where they can stay when they go there for treatment,” Baldev Kumar told news agency PTI.
Asked why he decided to contest the polls in Kashmir, Kumar stated that it was at the insistence of a “large” number of local people whom he has “served for the last 20 years”.
Want to build ‘Kashmir Bhawan’ in Punjab
Kumar, who is now among the 25 candidates in the fray from the Anantang-Rajouri constituency, which will go to polls on May 7, said he has been requesting the Jammu and Kashmir administration to build a ‘Kashmir Bhawan’ in Punjab, especially for the patients, but so far his efforts have been futile.
“(Activist) Medha Patkar got 20 acres of land for her NGO from the Gujarat government but I have not been allotted even two acres for a Kashmir Bhawan for the patients from J&K. The people have told me that I have to be in power and only then can I build a Kashmir Bhawan. So, I decided to contest the polls,” he said.
First ‘outsider’ to fight polls in J-K
Kumar said he does not have a Jammu and Kashmir domicile certificate as “I have not stayed in one place”.
The Mohali resident has become the first ‘outsider’ to contest polls in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 and downgrading and bifurcation of the erstwhile state on August 5, 2019 by the Narendra Modi government at the centre.
Notably, following the scrapping of J&K’s special status, an NCR resident Shams Khwaja, had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from the erstwhile Anantnag Parliamentary constituency, but lost the polls.
Khwaja had become first-ever non-resident to contest the polls in Jammu and Kashmir, drawing objections from the opposition as well as the local political parties against his candidature. However, those were promptly overruled by election authorities.
Jammu and Kashmir Lok Sabha Election 2024
The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is presently run by the Lt Governor-led administration after the PDP-BJP government collapsed in June 2018 with the national party pulling out of the alliance. The last assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir were held in 2014.
The Lok Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir are being conducted in five phases with voting in each of the five parliamentary constituencies of the Union Territory to be held in each phase.
An estimated 65 per cent of the total 16.23 lakh registered voters cast their ballot by 5 pm on Friday in the first phase of the elections in Udhampur.
(With PTI inputs)
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