Srinagar/Jammu. ‘India’, an alliance of opposition parties, will form the first elected government in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, where it has won 49 out of 90 seats in the assembly elections. Assembly elections have been held for the first time in Jammu and Kashmir after most of the provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution were repealed five years ago.
National Conference (NC), the oldest regional party of Jammu and Kashmir, emerged as the largest party by winning 42 seats and got only six seats less than the majority on its own. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) managed to win the only seat allotted to it under the seat-sharing agreement, while the Congress Party won six seats, five of which are in the Kashmir Valley. The performance of Congress in Jammu and Kashmir elections is not good, because it got only one seat in Jammu region. Despite the defeat of BJP’s Jammu and Kashmir unit president Ravindra Raina, the party’s vote percentage increased to 25.64 percent, which was 23 percent in 2014.
However, political analysts are not giving much importance to the increase in BJP’s seat count and attribute it mainly to the recent delimitation of assembly seats, in which many of the BJP’s strongholds were divided into two parts like Kishtwar and Nagrota and Jammu. Was divided into other areas of the district.
The vote percentage of the National Conference also saw an increase, and it increased to 23.43 percent, which was 20.77 percent in 2014.
In contrast, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) suffered huge losses and could get only three seats, whereas in 2014 it had won 28 seats. Besides, its vote percentage also decreased to just 8.87 percent, which was 22.67 percent in the last assembly elections held in 2014.
The graph of Congress has also fallen and it got only six seats, whereas in the elections held a decade ago, it had got 12 seats and the party’s vote percentage was 18 percent, which fell to about 12 percent in the 2024 elections. Only three women could win in these elections, which include Sakina Masood, Shamima Firdous (both from NC) and Shagun Parihar (from BJP). Two senior National Conference leaders – Abdul Rahim Rather (Charar-e-Sharif) and Ali Mohammad Sagar (Khanyar) – have been elected as MLAs for the seventh time. Important candidates who won the election include National Conference Vice President Omar Abdullah, Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress President Tariq Hameed Karra, PDP youth wing chief Waheed Para and BJP leader Devendra Rana.
Prominent candidates who lost in the elections include former Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig (Independent), Congress leader Tara Chand, State Congress Working President Raman Bhalla, former State Congress President Waqar Rasool Wani and National Conference provincial president Nasir Aslam Wani. After winning both Budgam and Ganderbal seats, probable Chief Ministerial candidate Omar Abdullah thanked the voters for their support.
We are committed to serve the people and address their concerns in this new mandate, he said. Abdullah said that in the last five years, several attempts were made to dismantle his party by forming new organizations, which was unsuccessful in this election. Were demolished.
PDP President Mehbooba Mufti, while congratulating the NC-Congress alliance on the victory, said that the Center should learn a lesson from the decisive decision of Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections and should not interfere in the affairs of the upcoming National Conference-Congress government.
Mufti said that her party will play the role of a constructive opposition.
The former Chief Minister told reporters here, “I congratulate the leadership of the National Conference for their spectacular victory. I also want to congratulate the people of Jammu and Kashmir that they voted for a stable government and not for a hung assembly, because people had to face many problems after August 5, 2019. To solve those problems, a stable and strong government is very important. CPI(M) candidate Mohammad Yusuf Tarigami won the assembly elections from Kulgam seat for the fifth consecutive time. He defeated Sayar Ahmed Reshi, a former member of the banned Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI), by over 7,800 votes.
Tarigami said that the results show that the people’s vote is against the central government and its policies.