Surrounded by mountains, Kishtwar, on the banks of the Chenab river, has always eluded the BJP. It is from here that prime minister Narendra Modi, the party's mascot for the polls, will fire the first shots of his Jammu and Kashmir campaign.
Confident of its victory in the core Hindu belt covering 21 seats of the Jammu region, the party is focusing on the rest of the 15 seats, making Kishtwar the focal point in the Chenab Valley and Rajouri in the Pir Panjal region. The BJP, which has pinned its hopes on Modi, is eyeing three-four of the six seats of the Kishtwar-Doda region where Congress holds five seats and National Conference one.
Modi is likely to hold his first election rally in the state on November 22 at Kishtwar, where the party has the highest stakes in the first phase, sources said. He is expected to hold rallies in Udhampur on November 28 and in the valley later, they said.
It is in places like Kishtwar, where the population of Muslims is marginally higher, that the BJP is leaving no stone unturned in the battle for Jammu and Kashmir. The BJP's candidate Sunil Sharma is pitted against Sajjad Ahmad Kitchloo, NC MLA and state minister, in the seat which has so far been represented by a Muslim. Kishtwar had witnessed communal tension last year.
According to the sources, of the six seats in the region which go to polls on November 25, the BJP was confident of securing Bhadarwah, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad's turf, Doda and Ramban, where the BJP won way back in 1996. However, in Kishtwar, Inderwal and Banihal, the party faced a tough fight. The party is counting on the Hindu and the Gujjar Muslim votes hoping that the combination could give it an edge, the sources said.
The Chenab valley also falls in the Udhampur Lok Sabha seat won by Jitendra Singh, the minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office.
In Rajouri, which the BJP has made its centre for the election in Pir Panjal, the population of Muslims is nearly ten per cent more than that of the Hindus.
Besides Modi, union ministers Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh are also likely to campaign in the state. The party's minority faces -- Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Shahnawaz Hussain will hold rallies this week.
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