NC replaces Cong as second major party in Jammu
JKAP rises on political scene, gets more votes than PDP
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Dec 23: With results of 278 out of 280 seats of the District Development Councils (DDCs) declared by the State Election Commission (SEC) today, the BJP emerged as single largest party in Jammu and Kashmir winning 75 seats followed by National Conference 67, and also secured highest 24.82 percent votes across the Union Territory, nearly eight percent more than the NC which dominated political scene of Jammu and Kashmir for past several years.
Click here to watch video
This is for the first time in the history of Jammu and Kashmir that the BJP has emerged single largest party in any election. In 2014 Assembly elections, the BJP had secured 25 Assembly seat short of PDP’s 28.
Releasing final tally this evening, SEC KK Sharma said results of 278 out of 280 seats have been declared while counting of Drugmulla in Kupwara and Hajin-A in Bandipora has been withheld. The counting was stopped as two candidates contesting there are Pakistani nationals.
Of 278 seats, BJP got 75 NC 67, Independents 50, PDP 27, Congress 26, Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP) 12, People’s Conference 8, CPM 5, Jammu Kashmir People’s Movement 3, Nationalist Panthers Party and PDF 2 each and BSP 1.
Tally for Jammu region stood as BJP 72, National Conference 25, Independents 19, Congress 17, JKAP 3, JKNPP 2 and PDP and BSP one each. Rajouri was the only district where counting continued till this morning and NC emerged single largest party winning 5 seats followed by Congress and BJP 3 each, JKAP, PDP and Independent one each.
Not only in terms of seats, the BJP also secured highest 24.82 percent votes in Jammu and Kashmir while National Conference got 16.46 percent, Congress 13.82 percent, PDP 3.96 percent, JKAP 5.3 percent and People’s Conference 1.98 percent. A total of 28.55 lakh votes out of around 57 lakh were polled in eight-phase DDC elections.
Though the BJP dominated the DDC elections, it faced certain reverses too as its two former Ministers including Choudhary Sham Lal and Shakti Raj Parihar lost election. As reported yesterday, Sham was defeated in Suchetgarh seat of Jammu district by Independent Taranjit Singh Tony by narrow margin of 11 votes while Shakti Parihar lost from the two seats he contested in Doda. Both Choudhary and Parihar were the BJP candidates for Chairmen of DDCs of Jammu and Doda respectively.
In BJP president Ravinder Raina’s hometown of Nowshera, PDP’s Manohar Singh won the seat by 2928 votes. Significantly, Nowshera is the lone seat the PDP won in 140 segments of Jammu region.
Never in the past, the BJP had emerged as single largest party in terms of seats and votes percentage across Jammu and Kashmir though it has won both Lok Sabha seats of Jammu-Poonch and Udhampur-Doda in Jammu region four times.
Political observers attributed constant rise of the BJP in Jammu and Kashmir since 2014 to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah by deputing several Union Ministers including Smriti Irani, Dr Jitendra Singh, Anurag Thakur and party general secretary Tarun Chug and regular tours of the UT by party president Ravinder Raina in J&K. However, they admitted that most of the BJP leaders, who were Ministers in PDP-BJP Government, have lost contact with the masses which is required to be taken seriously by the party leadership.
Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party led by former Minister Altaf Bukhari has also emerged as force to reckon with. Though it won only 12 DDC seats-nine in Kashmir and three in Jammu in the first election it was contesting-it could manage to get 1.98 percent votes, which were more than 3.96 percent secured by the PDP and 5.3 percent obtained by the People’s Conference.
“JKAP securing more votes than PDP and JKPC is quite significant as the party was contesting it’s first-ever election,” the observers said. Further, the JKAP candidates were pitted against People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), a conglomerate of seven political parties.
Quite surprising, according to observers, is the poor performance of the Congress which has been replaced by the National Conference as second major party in the Jammu region. While the National Conference won 25 DDC seats in Jammu region emerging single largest party in three districts including Kishtwar, Ramban and Rajouri though it fell short of majority, the Congress got just 17 seats and finished behind even the Independents who bagged 19 seats.
Poonch and Doda were the only districts where Congress won highest number of four seats each followed by Rajouri and Kishtwar three each.
Wrong distribution of tickets and lackluster campaign were among host of factors which led to downfall of the Congress in Jammu region, the observers said.
The Congress didn’t give mandate to Shahnawaz Choudhary, it’s prominent leader in Surankote and fielded former MLA Choudhary Akram. Shahnawaz won by huge margin as an Independent candidate. In another seat of Poonch, late MLA Bashir Naz’s son wasn’t given ticket by the Congress and he too won as an Independent. Similar were the cases in some other constituencies also.
As reported, the congress drew a blank in Jammu, Samba, Kathua and Udhampur districts with its candidates, in some of the seats, not even finishing runners-up and ending up at third or fourth places.
“The National Conference rise in Jammu region is definitely worrisome for the Congress as Jammu region was once known as very strong hold of the party and it remained part of the Government in Jammu and Kashmir for 12 years i.e. from 2002 to 2008 with PDP and 2008 to 2014 with Congress before the BJP ended its winning spree.
The height of poor performance by the Congress can also be well gauged by the fact that the NC managed to win a seat each in Jammu and Samba districts while the Congress couldn’t.
The PDP had no major stakes in Jammu region earlier also while the Nationalist Panthers Party and the BSP also fared badly winning two and one seats respectively while Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan failed to make its presence felt anywhere.
Total Tally
Party Name Total Seats Won
BJP 75
J&K NC 67
Independent 50
J&K PDP 27
INC 26
JKAP 12
JKPC 8
CPI (M) 5
JKPM 3
JKNPP 2
PDF 2
BSP 1
Follow our WhatsApp channel
