J-K polls: BJP retains its dominance in Jammu region; Congress wins 1 seat

Jammu: The BJP has emerged the second largest party by winning 29 constituencies in the maiden assembly polls post abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, improving its all-time high tally of 25 seats recorded in 2014 elections.

However, the saffron party’s biggest setback was the loss suffered by its Union Territory president Ravinder Raina from Nowshera constituency at the hands of National Conference. Besides, the party also failed to secure a win from any seat in Kashmir where most of its nearly two dozen candidates lost their security deposit.

The pre-poll alliance between the National Conference and Congress managed to cross the half-way mark by securing 48 seats with the regional party getting the lion's share of 42 seats. The BJP had fielded 62 candidates this time with major focus on its strong bastion of Jammu region.

However, it failed in its attempt to make inroads in Pir Panjal region of Rajouri and Poonch districts by fielding several turncoats from Gujjar and Pahari community including two former ministers – Choudhary Zulfikar Ali (Budhal) and Syed Mushtaq Bukhari (Surankote) – who lost by a huge margin of 18,908 votes and 10,428 votes, respectively. Incidentally, 75-year-old Bukhari passed away on October 2.

Besides the two former ministers, four ex-legislators, including Raina, lost to their rivals.

However, 12 former legislators, including seven ministers, successfully contested the elections and mostly retained their seats. The rest of the party winners are new faces including a former police officer, a university professor and a former bureaucrat who have taken retirement recently to fight the elections besides a lone woman who had lost her father and uncle to a terror attack in November 2018.

J&K BJP chief Raina lost to National Conference nominee Surinder Choudhary from Nowshera seat by a margin of 7,819 votes. Raina had won the seat in 2014 assembly elections.

Similarly, former MLA Rajeev Sharma lost to Congress rebel Satish Sharma by 6,929 votes from Chhamb, former MLA Jewan Lal lost to independent candidate Rameshwar Singh by 2,048 votes in Bani, former MLA Faqeer Mohammad Khan lost to NC leader Nazir Ahmad Khan by 1,132 votes and former MLC Vibod Kumar lost to Congress candidate Iftkar Ahmed by a margin of 1,404 votes.

Vice president of J&K BJP Sofi Yousif only managed 3,716 votes from Srigufwara-Bijbehara where the winning NC candidate got 33,299 votes followed by PDP’s Iltija Mufti who secured 23,529 votes.

Prominent among others who won the elections for the BJP include former ministers Sham Lal Sharma, Surjeet Singh Slathia (Samba), Pawan Kumar Gupta (Udhampur West), Devender Kumar Manyal (Ramgarh), Rajiv Jasrotia (Jasrota), Shakti Raj Parihar (Doda West), Chander Parkash (Vijaypur), and Sunil Sharma (Paddar-Nagseni) and former MLAs Devender Singh Rana (Nagrota), Kuldeep Raj Dubey (Reasi), Daleep Singh (Bhaderwah), Baldev Raj Sharma (Shri Mata Vaishno Devi) and Ranbir Singh Pathania (Udhampur east).

Devender Singh Rana registered the highest winning margin of 30,472 votes against his nearest NC rival Joginder Singh who polled 17,641 votes, while Slathia also registered a win by 30309 votes against independent candidate Ravinder Singh who polled 12,873 votes.

Two-time MLA Balwant Singh Mankotia, who joined the BJP last year, won the elections from Chenani segment, defeating his nearest rival and former minister Harsh Dev Singh by a margin of 15,611 votes. Singh, who heads National Panthers Party (India), is the cousin of Mankotia who polled 47,990 votes.

Darshan Kumar of the BJP defeated veteran Congress leader and two-time MP Choudhary Lal Singh by a huge margin of 16,034 votes from Basohli constituency, while Garu Ram, a two-time MLA of the BJP, scored victory from Suchetgarh segment by a margin of 11,141 votes.

BJP candidates Arvind Gupta and Satish Kumar Sharma won from Jammu West and Billawar segments by 22,127 and 21,388 votes, respectively.

Shagun Parihar (Kishtwar) defeated her nearest rival and former NC minister Sajjad Kitchloo after a day-long seesaw battle by a slender margin of 521 votes.

Former SSP Mohan Lal won from Akhnoor by a margin of 24,679 votes, former agriculture director Bharat Bhushan emerged victorious from Kathua seat by 12,117 votes and Sunil Bhardwaj (Ramnagar) by 9,306 votes.

Congress wins 1 seat

The individual performance of the Congress in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly polls has hit an all-time low as only one of its 29 candidates managed to win in the Jammu region, while its prominent leaders including two working presidents lost the elections.

The Congress, however, said the result in Jammu region was not in accordance with the party's expectations and a detailed feedback would be sought on the debacle.

The Congress was fighting the elections in a pre-poll alliance with National Conference (NC) and had fielded 32 candidates, mostly in Jammu region, compared to 51 by the regional party. Additionally, the CPI(M) and the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) have each been allocated one seat while both the Congress and NC had a 'friendly contest' on five seats.

In the Jammu region, the Congress has managed to win only the Rajouri seat as against a total of five seats in 2014. The Congress's Iftikar Ahmed defeated his nearest rival, BJP's Vibodh Gupta, by a margin of 1,404 votes after securing 28,923 votes.

The NC did not field any candidate from the constituency according to the seat sharing agreement.

However, the Congress managed to win five seats in Kashmir where Pradesh Congress president Tariq Hameed Karra won from Central Shalteng, AICC general secretary and former minister G A Mir from Dooru, Irfan Hafiz Lone from Wagoora-Kreeri, former minister Peerzada Mohammad Syed from Anantnag and former MLA Nizam-uddin Bhat in Bandipora.

The performance of the Congress leaders in the Jammu region can be gauged from the fact that most of its senior leaders, including two working presidents, a former Pradesh Congress president and several ministers were humbled by the BJP rivals.

Prominent among those who have lost the elections include working president and former deputy chief minister Tara Chand (Chhamb), working president and former minister Raman Bhalla (R S Pura), Pradesh Congress Committee president and former minister Vikar Rasool Wani (Banihal), two-time former MP Choudhary Lal Singh (Basohli), former ministers Manohar Lal Sharma (Billawar), Yogesh Sawhney (Jammu East), Mula Ram (Marh) and Mohd Shabir Khan (Thanamandi).

Congress, meanwhile, expressed gratitude to the people for a decisive mandate in favour of NC-Congress coalition to keep BJP out of power.

J-K Congress chief spokesperson Ravinder Sharma congratulated the people for their clear verdict and said “the hollow claims of BJP have been exposed by the people who have given a loud message that they are not satisfied with the policies and actions of the saffron party for the past 10 years.”

The Congress leader said that there was large scale resentment against BJP in Jammu region too over record unemployment, price rise, huge taxations of various sorts but the results do not match the ground situation.

“The results in Jammu region are not up to our expectations and surprisingly against ground situation, for which a detailed feedback shall be sought from the party workers,” he said.

He claimed that the BJP tried to create a “fake and negative” narrative in Jammu against Congress-NC coalition while it hobnobbed with separatist forces in the valley and was desperate for gaining power by hook and crook but people defeated its designs. “It was ready to defeat the mandate of the people through backdoor nominations of five MLAs but failed to succeed in its mission due to lack of basic numbers to manipulate,” Sharma said.

He added that that if the Lieutenant Governor nominated MLAs without the recommendations of the new council of ministers, that would be “wrong and against law”.