Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the BJP's Lok Sabha campaign in Jammu on Thursday.
This will be the second time that Modi will initiate the BJP's Parliamentary election campaign in Jammu.
Riding the 'Modi wave', the BJP had won both seats in the Jammu region, Jammu-Udhampur-Doda and Jammu-Poonch, in the 2014 Lok Sabha election.
Modi will reach Jammu after 4pm on Thursday and would then travel to Akhnoor by helicopter to address a rally. Modi will be flying to Jammu after addressing two rallies in Uttar Pradesh. He is scheduled to address 150 rallies during the election campaign.
In 2014, Modi had visited the Mata Vaishno Devi temple before addressing a rally in support of BJP candidate for Udhampur-Doda constituency, Jitendra Singh, at Hiranagar. Singh had defeated former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad in his electoral debut by a margin of over 60,000 votes. Singh is a minister of state in the Modi government.
Modi will address another election rally in Kathua on April 9 in support of Singh. He could visit Mata Vaishno Devi shrine the same day if there is time.
There is no word whether the BJP's star campaigner will address any rallies in the Kashmir valley and Ladakh regions. In 2014, the BJP won Ladakh Lok Sabha seat by a mere 34 votes against the Congress. BJP candidate, Thupstan Chhewang, who won the seat resigned from the party over its alleged 'failure' to fulfil promises made during the elections. The BJP has fielded candidates in all three seats in Kashmir.
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In the 2014 election, the BJP had won three out of six Lok Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir—the two seats of Jammu and one of Ladakh.
However, since then, the BJP's political stock has taken a hit in Jammu after its alliance with the PDP, which ended in June 2018. The handling of the Kathua rape and murder case by the PDP-BJP government has also impacted the fortunes of the saffron party as it has angered many of its supporters.