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The Doda Assembly constituency in Jammu and Kashmir, one of the largest in the Union Territory, is witnessing a five-cornered contest, with two former ministers among the candidates in the fray, in the 2024 Assembly elections. The voting is underway in the seat. Doda is one of the eight Assembly segments in the Chenab Valley in the western part of Jammu.
The constituency spans across areas like Dessa, Bhagwah, Marmat, Jodhpur, Jakyas, Thathri, Kahra and Chilly Pingal. During the J&K Assembly elections 2014, Shakti Raj Parihar of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured a historic win from Doda seat, defeating Abdul Majid Wani, who won the seat first as an Independent candidate in 2002 and later secured a win in 2008 as a Congress candidate. Wani also served as a Minister of State in former CM Mufti Muhammad Sayeed's government.
With Parihar shifting to the newly created Doda West seat, the saffron party has this time fielded Gajay Singh Rana. Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed an election rally at the Sports Stadium in Doda. Majid Wani, who switched from Congress to the Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP), has been nominated by the Ghulam Nabi Azad-led party from the seat.
The grand old party, meanwhile, has announced Sheikh Riaz Ahmed as its candidate. Apart from them, Khalid Najeeb Suharwardy of the National Conference is trying his luck again from Doda Assembly, despite witnessing three straight poll losses earlier. His father, Attaullah Suharwardy, had secured a win from this seat in 1987 and 1996.
A year after his demise, Khalid bagged the seat in a 1997 bypoll, which was his first and only victory from the Assembly segment. Although the National Conference and Congress are contesting the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Elections 2024 together, they have announced their candidates separately on a few seats as part of the "friendly contest". The Mehbooba Mufti-led People's Democratic Party (PDP) has fielded Mansour Ahmed Batt from the Doda seat.
In 2014, The PDP emerged as the single-largest party in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, winning 28 out of 87 seats. Following it closely, the BJP secured a win on 25 seats, while the National Conference and Congress were only able to manage 15 and 12 seats, respectively. Doda Assembly Election: Voting date Voting for the 2024 Assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir is taking place in three phases on September 18, September 25 and October 1, covering all the 90 Assembly segments in the Union Territory.
The counting of votes will be done on October 8. In Doda, polling is held on September 18 in the first phase itself. It has a total of 98,582 voters, which includes 50,546 males and 48,034 females, besides two third-gender voters.
Doda Assembly Election: Candidates list In total, there are nine candidates in the fray from the Jammu and Kashmir's Doda Assembly seat, which is up for a tight contest as the pendulum could swing to any side. Candidate Names Party Khalid Najeeb Suharwardy National Conference Gajay Singh Rana Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sheikh Riaz Ahmed Congress Abdul Majid Wani Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) Mansour Ahmed Batt Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Mehraj Malik Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Bilal Khan Independent Jawaz Ahmed Independent Tariq Hussain Independent Doda Assembly Election: 2014 result During the 2014 Assembly polls, BJP's Shakti Parihar registered a victory on this seat, defeating his nearest rival and then Congress candidate Abdul Majid Wani by 4,040 votes. Candidate Names Party Votes Shakti Raj Parihar BJP 24,572 Abdul Majid Wani Congress 20,532.
