Jammu and Kashmir Lok Sabha Elections 2024 News: With days to announcement of Lok Sabha Polls nearing, Grand Old Party Congress is facing a serious concern of 'disinterest' by probable candidates for contesting Parliamentary Polls in the newly carved Union Territory. It is said that 10 out of 15 candidates in two seats of Jammu- Reasi and Udhampur - Kathua Lok Sabha Seat have stepped back from contesting polls, owing to different reasons ranging from financial support to family issues.

In Jammu, six out of the nine potential candidates of Congress against BJP's Jugal Kishore have cited various reasons for abstaining from contesting the polls. Similarly, four out of six potential candidates against the Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office, Dr Jitendra Singh, have displayed disinterest in participating in the upcoming elections, suggesting potential challenges in candidate recruitment for the Congress.

Two Senior Congress leaders when Republic Media spoke to them, said that their name was put on the list as being senior but they intend not to take part in Parliamentary Polls. None of these leaders have accepted, even off-record, that the reason for their 'disinterest' is the declining graph of the grand old party but have given reasons that they don't have that much money which they can spend on the upcoming Lok Sabha Polls. Another leader said that his area of responsibility has always remained limited to his constituency in the hilly terrain of the Jammu region and contesting Lok Sabha Polls will not bring any positive outcome for him or the party.

Sources have informed Republic Media that after initial hesitation, Congress J&K Working President Raman Bhalla has agreed to contest Lok Sabha Polls against two-time winner of BJP Jugal Kishore Sharma who has been given a ticket again by the Saffron Party. In the 2019 Lok Sabha Polls, Jugal's vote share was 58% while Raman Bhalla managed to get 37% votes. In 2014, BJP's vote share in this seat was 33.55% while Congress managed to get 19.63% votes.

While on the Udhampur- Kathua seat, Congress is facing the same issue as four out of six probable candidates against MoS PMO Dr Jitendra Singh have shown disinterest in contesting polls. In 2019, Dr Jitendra Singh got 61.24% votes while Congress's Vikramaditya Singh got 31.04% votes. In 2014, it was a close contest when Jitendra Singh got 33.18% votes against Former JK CM Ghulam Nabi Azad who secured 29.02% votes.