By IANS,
Jammu : Former convenor of Shri Amarnath Sangrash Samiti (SASS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nominee Leela Karan Sharma Saturday filed his nomination papers from the Jammu-Poonch Lok Sabha constituency in Jammu and Kashmir.
Hundreds of BJP workers, shouting slogans, accompanied Sharma in a huge procession.
The SASS, a conglomerate of two dozen Hindu groups, led an agitation for the allotment of a 100-acre plot to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board. Sharma had become face of the agitation.
After filing his papers, Sharma said if elected, he would fight against the discrimination meted out to the Jammu region.
“While 16 lakh (1.6 million) voters elect 46 MLAs (state legislators) from the Kashmir Valley, 21 lakh (2.1 million) elect only 37 from the Jammu region,” Sharma noted.
“I will fight for immediate delimitation of the constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir so that this discrimination comes to an end.”
Sharma said that Jammu has only two Lok Sabha seats against three in the valley.
His Congress rival Madan Lal also filed his nomination papers Saturday. He was accompanied by Union Water Resources Minister Saifudin Soz and Minister of State in Prime Minister’s office Prithvi Raj Chouhan.
Madan Lal told reporters that his track record is well-known and that he would continue to work for the welfare of the people.