By IANS,
Jammu : Two former bureaucrats are among a host of candidates in fray for the March 7 elections to the Jammu and Kashmir legislative council, or upper house, for which the last day of filing nominations was Tuesday.
The Congress has fielded B.R. Kundal and the National Conference has nominated Vijay Bakaya among their candidates for the elections to 11 vacant seats of the legislative council.
Kundal and Bakaya were chief secretaries in the coalition government of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Congress that ruled the state from 2002 to 2008.
Political parties have also fielded candidates who lost the November-December 2008 state assembly elections.
Among others fighting on the Congress ticket is former minister Khem Lata Wakhloo. She had lost the assembly poll from Srinagar’s Sonwar constituency to former chief minister Farooq Abdullah of the National Conference.
The National Conference has also fielded two former ministers Ajat Shatru Singh, scion of the Dogra royal family in Jammu, and former home minister Khalid Najib Suharwardy. Singh and Suharwardy also lost the 2008 assembly polls.
The PDP has fielded defeated candidate Asghar Ali, who lost polls from the Kishtwar constituency.
Shamsher Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also filed his nomination papers for the council elections.