Jammu/Srinagar, Oct 8:
The National Conference-Congress alliance on Tuesday won 48 of the total 90 seats in the Assembly and secured the majority in the first election held in Jammu and Kashmir after a decade and abrogation of Article 370.
National Conference Vice President Omar Abdullah will be the next Chief Minister of the coalition government in J&K, Party President Farooq Abdullah announced today.
Improving its previous tally of winning 25 seats in 2014, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) won 29 seats of the 43 seats it contested in the Jammu region.
Notably, in 2014, BJP formed a coalition government with the PDP.
The National Conference (NC)-Congress alliance, swept the polls this time, breaking a three-decade-long jinx by securing a majority on its own.
Out of the 90 seats in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, the NC-Congress alliance won 48 seats (NC 42 and Congress 6), crossing the majority mark of 46 whereas the BJP won 29 (all from Jammu region), PDP won three, Independents won seven seats and Peoples Conference and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) claimed one seat each.
Proving the political analysts wrong, AAP candidate Mehraj Malik surprised
NC-Congress alliance
everyone from the Doda Constituency as he defeated his nearest rival Gajay Singh Rana from the BJP by a margin of 4538 votes.
On one hand when AAP won its maiden seat in Jammu and Kashmir but, contrary to that the heavyweight candidates from the BJP including J&K party Chief Ravinder Raina lost to NC’s Surinder Choudhary from his hometown Nowshera constituency, senior leader Vibodh Gupta lost his seat in Rajouri against the Congress candidate.
Similarly, the key candidates in the Congress party, former ministers Raman Bhalla lost to BJP’s Vikram Randhawa from Bahu Constituency, former minister Manohar Lal Sharma lost to BJP’s Satish Sharma in Billawar, former minister and firebrand leader Choudhary Lal Singh faced defeat in Basohli against Darshan Kumar of BJP.
BJP candidate Sunil Sharma secured victory from the Padder-Nagseni assembly segment, winning by a narrow margin of 1,445 votes against National Conference’s Pooja Thakur, former minister Surjeet Singh Salathia of BJP from Samba constituency secured a comfortable win against Independent candidate Ravinder Singh, in Suchetgarh, BJP’s Gharu Ram won by defeating Congress’s Bhushan Lal Dogra.
BJP’s Arvind Gupta emerged victorious in Jammu West, defeating Congress’s Manmohan Singh, former minister and BJP candidate Dr Devinder Kumar Manyal won from Ramgarh defeating Congress’s Yashpal Kunada.
Moreover, the lone BJP woman candidate in Jammu and Kashmir polls, Shagun Parihar won the Kishtwar Assembly seat as she defeated veteran National Conference (NC) leader and former minister Sajad Ahmed Kitchloo by a narrow margin of 521 votes.
As many as five Independent candidates (from Jammu region) including the Congress rebel Satish Sharma won from their respective constituencies.
Led by veteran politician Farooq Abdullah, the NC secured 42 seats, including 35 from the Kashmir region and the remaining from Jammu.
In the Kashmir Valley, the NC contested 40 seats.
NC Vice President Omar Abdullah triumphed, winning both his seats from Budgam and Ganderbal.
Commenting on the results, the NC Chief Farooq Abdullah said that this represents a clear rejection of the Centre’s August 5, 2019, move-that revoked J&K’s Special Status.
Farooq Abdullah also announced that Omar will be the chief minister of the coalition government.
