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Jammu, Udhampur Lok Sabha seats stay in BJP kitty but vote share takes a hit
Union minister Dr Jitendra Singh, sitting MP Jugal Kishore defeat Congress candidates by margins of over 1.24 lakh and 1.35 lakh votes
With Union minister Dr Jitendra Singh and BJP MP Jugal Kishore beating their arch-rivals from the Congress-- Choudhary Lal Singh and Raman Bhalla by margins of over 1.24 lakh and 1.35 lakh votes, respectively, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on Tuesday, retained Jammu and Udhampur Lok Sabha seats for the third consecutive term since 2014.
Jammu and Kashmir has five Lok Sabha constituencies—Jammu, Udhampur, Srinagar, Baramulla and Anantnag-Poonch.
Though Dr Singh and Kishore retained their respective Lok Sabha constituencies for the third straight term since 2014, their victory margins plummeted considerably—by over two lakh votes each.
In Udhampur constituency, sitting MP and Union minister Dr Jitendra Singh polled 5,71,076 votes with a vote share of 51.28% against his nearest rival from the Congress, Choudhary Lal Singh with 4,46,703 votes with a vote share of 40.11% .
Dr Jitendra Singh won by a margin of 1,24,373 votes against Lal Singh.
Lal Singh, who was arrested in November last year by Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case, had campaigned vigorously in the interiors of his constituency.
In 2019, Dr Jitendra Singh had defeated Congress candidate Vikramaditya Singh with a whopping margin of 3,49,283 votes. Jitendra Singh was polled 7,15,406 votes, as against his rival’s 3,66,123 votes.
The BJP leader had won from Udhampur in 2014 and 2019 while Lal Singh won it in 2004 and 2009.
The constituency went to polls on April 19.
In 2014 general elections, Dr Jitendra Singh, a novice then, had defeated Congress candidate Ghulam Nabi Azad by a margin of 60,976 votes to claim the title of ‘giant killer’ from the political analysts. Singh was polled 4,87,369 votes as compared to Azad’s 4,26,393 votes.
Azad’s close confidante GM Saroori of the Democratic Progressive Azad Party scored a meager 39,599 votes.
In Jammu Lok Sabha constituency, incumbent BJP MP Jugal Kishore was polled 6,87,588 votes with a vote share of 52.8% against his nearest rival from the Congress and former minister Raman Bhalla.
Bhalla was polled 5,52,090 votes with a vote share of 42.4%. Jugal Kishore won by a margin of 1,35,498 votes against Bhalla.
In 2019 general elections, Kishore had recorded a victory margin of 3,02,875 votes, securing 8,58,066 votes against Bhalla’s 5,55,191 votes.
In 2014, the BJP leader had defeated Madan Lal Sharma, a two-time Congress MP, by nearly 2.57 lakh votes. He was polled 6.19 lakh votes while Madan Lal Sharma secured 3.62 lakh votes.
NDA will form govt with Modi as PM, says Raina
The NDA will form government with Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister for a third term, Jammu and Kashmir BJP president Ravinder Raina said on Tuesday.
He also expressed satisfaction over BJP candidates — Jitendra Singh and Jugal Kishore Sharma — winning Udhampur and Jammu parliamentary seats with convincing margins.
“BJP-led NDA under the leadership of Modi is forming the government for the third consecutive term, given the trends which till now show that the Congress-led INDIA bloc is 100 seats behind us. The counting is underway and we are hopeful of getting over 300 seats for our alliance at the end of the counting,” Raina told reporters at party headquarters here.
