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NC, BJP grab 3 seats each; People’s Democratic Party faces rout
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which had won all three Kashmir seats in 2014, drew a blank with party chief Mehbooba Mufti losing from Anantnag.
The National Conference (NC) won all three Lok Sabha seats in the Kashmir Valley and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won both seats in the Jammu region and the Ladakh constituency.
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which had won all three Kashmir seats in 2014, drew a blank with party chief Mehbooba Mufti losing from Anantnag.
Former chief minister Farooq Abdullah won from Srinagar, a seat he had won in a bypoll in 2017. He defeated his nearest rival, PDP’s Syed Mohsin, by over 70,000 votes. The NC’s Mohammad Akbar Lone and Husnain Masoodi won the Anantnag and Baramulla seats. Masoodi defeated Mufti.
Union minister Jitendra Singh won the Udhampur seat and secured over 700,000 votes. The Congress’s Vikramaditya Singh managed to get over 365,000 votes. The BJP’s Jugal Kishore defeated Congress candidate Raman Bhalla in Jammu.
The BJP’s Jamyang Tsering Namgyal defeated Sajjad Hussain, an NC and PDP-backed candidate, to win the Ladakh Lok Sabha seat. The Congress failed to win any seat while it contested five out of the six seats in the state.
Abdullah said he has been voted to represent Srinagar in Parliament at a critical juncture. “We have critical issues related to Jammu and Kashmir because their intention is to do away with (the Constitution’s) Article 370 and 35A. We have to fight with them on these issues,’’ he said.
He was referring to the BJP’s promise of doing away with constitutional provisions that give Jammu and Kashmir a certain amount of autonomy in legislation and prevent non-residents from buying property in the state.
BJP state general secretary, Ashok Kaul, said his party’s performance was on expected lines. “People of the state have reposed faith in us. We are hopeful that in the assembly elections, the party will do well,’’ he said.
PDP youth president, Waheed ur Rehman Parra, acknowledged the people were angry with his party for allying with the BJP (after the state elections in 2014).
“Also, the places which we considered as our bastions witnessed a complete poll boycott. We have learned our lessons and will do better in assembly polls.’’
Mufti led a government in Jammu and Kashmir with the BJP’s help until June 2018. The PDP allied with the BJP even as it had sought votes in the name of halting it from making inroads into the state in 2014.
Srinagar-based political analyst Gowhar Geelani said the results of the elections reflect the way the wind was blowing ahead of the state elections.
“People could vote on similar lines in the assembly polls. While the BJP will have an advantage in the Jammu region, the NC could replace the PDP in Kashmir. It is a going to be a replica of the old mandate that Kashmir and Jammu regions will vote differently,” Geelani said.
A home ministry official told HT this week that assembly elections were likely to be held in Jammu and Kashmir in November this year.
