Meet Shagun Parihar, who lost her father, uncle in terror attacks, now set to contest J-K assembly polls from...

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which announced the first list of its candidates for the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir assembly polls, has fielded Shagun Parihar from the Kishtwar assembly constituency. 

Shagun Parihar is the only woman to have featured on the first list of 15 candidates of the party. She is the niece of BJP's former secretary of Jammu and Kashmir, Anil Parihar, who was killed by terrorists in 2018. 

Shagun lost her father and uncle in terror attacks 

Shagun Parihar lost her father Ajit Parihar and uncle Anil Parihar in terror attacks in November, 2018 in Kishtwar. After receiving the ticket, she thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP Chief JP Nadda. 

"I want to thank Prime Minister Narendra Modiji and party president JP Naddaji", Aaj Tak has quoted Parihar as saying. 

Shagun gets emotional while remembering her father

In a conversation with Aaj Tak, the BJP candidate got emotional while remembering her father. 

"I am confident that the people of Kishtwar will welcome their daughter with open arms. The election does not only belong to my family or the Parihar brothers, but to everyone who has lost their loved ones", Shagun Parihar said, adding that she could not say any further as she was very emotional. 

BJP withdrew list of 44 candidates 

Notably, the BJP earlier announced a list of 44 candidates. However, the saffron party withdrew the list and re-released the revised list with 15 candidates for the first round of polling. 

The list was finalised in the Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting of the party, held in the national capital on Sunday. 

Meanwhile, the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir will go into polls in three phases on September 18, 25, and October 1 respectively and the counting of votes will take place on October 4. This is the first time that elections are being held in Jammu and Kashmir, post the abroagation of article 370.