Independent candidate Bilal Ahmad shows a sign of victory during vote counting in J&K DDC polls
Srinagar:
Independent candidates have emerged as big winners in the first Jammu and Kashmir District Development Council elections, and 49 of them have been declared elected so far out of 280 seats, putting them ahead of parties like Congress and the PPD of Mehbooba Mufti.
Among the great independent victories is Taranjit Singh, who defeated the BJP’s two-time MLA and former minister Sham Lal Choudhary in Suchetgarh, in the Jammu region, by a slim margin of 11 votes.
Although the BJP maintained its supremacy by emerging as the largest party with 74 seats and leading in another seat, the defeat of its stalwart SL Choudhary and another former minister Shakti Raj Parihar, who lost in two electoral districts in the Doda district, has produced as a shock by it.
Choudhary lost to Singh by a very narrow margin. Singh got 12,969 votes to Choudhary’s 12,958, according to the results declared by the J&K Election Commissioner in the early hours of Wednesday.
Choudhary, who was originally from Bhimber Tehsil in Pakistani-occupied Kashmir before his family migrated to the Chakroi border village in RS Pura sector, had won a seat in the Suchetgarh assembly for the first time in 2008 and repeated the performance for the party in 2014.
Singh expressed his gratitude to his voters, saying that voting for him was “against agricultural laws imposed by the BJP government on the country’s farmers against their will.”
“The BJP opted for an aggressive campaign that attracted union ministers, chief ministers and national leaders to divert the attention of voters from the real issues facing the public,” said Singh, who ultimately prevailed after a close contest with the BJP leader.
By the way, this was the victory with the smallest margin of any candidate in the Jammu region, although an independent candidate won by just three votes against his rival from the National Conference in the Kashmir Valley, where many winners were successful by small margins due to low voter turnout for various constituencies.
Independent candidates have won a total of 49 seats with one more leading another seat in the Poonch district.
Another major defeat for the BJP was that Parihar lost to his National Conference rival Asim Hashmi from the Gundana segment and Congress opponent from the Marmat Mushtaq Ahmad headquarters, both falling in the Doda district as the tally of all the day witnessed a battle between him and his opponents.
Former MLA Shah Mohammad Tantray, who had resigned from the PDP earlier this year, was defeated by independent candidate Riyaaz Choudhary, who garnered 3,829 votes to 2,898 from him in the Loran district of Poonch district.
Independent candidate Avtar Singh was the luckiest among the contestants, winning by just three votes. Avtar Singh obtained 246 votes to 243 of his rival in the National Conference Ali Mohammad Bhat to become the winner of the Dadsara constituency in the Pulwama district of southern Kashmir.
From the same district, BJP’s Minha Latief won by 14 votes against her PDP rival, Ruqaya Bano. Minha Lateef got 364 votes, while Rugaya Bano got 350 votes. The BJP has won three Kashmir Valley seats for the first time.
Among other low-margin victories, independent candidate Bilqees Jan defeated her closest rival Gull Iqbal (Independent) by 11 votes from the Zainapora constituency in the Shopian district. Jan got 146 votes and Iqbal 135.
Khalida Bibi (PDP) won by seven votes, defeating her closest rival Sajida Begum (Independent) from the Larnoo constituency in the Anantnag district. Khalida Bibi obtained 4,580 votes against Sajida Begum’s 4,573.
Bial Ahmad Deva (Independent) emerged victorious from the Vessu constituency, defeating his closest rival Mudassir Rashid Mir of the People’s Movement by 35 votes after achieving a total of 1,779 votes, while Nisar Ahmad Sheikh (Independent) also registered a victory over Rayees Ul Hassan of the National Conference. by 35 votes after obtaining a total of 1,945 votes.
The margin of victory in Srinagar, where the largest number of seven independent candidates won the DDC polls, was also very low. The J&K Apni Party won three seats in the district’s DDC, followed by one each from the National Conference, BJP, and J&K People’s Movement.
Independent candidate Mohammad Yaseen Rather obtained 156 votes and won by 21 votes from Qamarwari constituency, J&K Apni party candidate Shameema Bano obtained 213 votes and won by 36 votes from Khonmoh-I, while Ali Mohammad Rather (independent ) won Harwan-II by 96 votes after getting 314 votes.
For the rest of the winning candidates, there was a triple-digit margin as Mohammad Shaban Chopan (Independent) won by the highest margin of 521 votes in the district. He cast 609 votes against his closest rival, Mohammad Altaf Lali (Independent), who got only 88 votes.
In the Jammu region, which saw high turnout during the eight-phase DDC elections, Amit Sharma of the BJP recorded a 47-vote victory for the Majalta segment of Udhampur district against his closest rival Rajesh Kumar of the Party of the National Panthers (NPP). Sharma got 4,215 votes and Kumar 4,168 votes.
Most of the 14 seats in the Udhampur district witnessed a melee fight mainly between the BJP and the NPP. The BJP eventually won 11 seats, the NPP two and Independiente one.
Hans Raj of Congress defeated BJP’s Sanjay Kumar by 99 votes in the Drabshalla-B constituency in Kishtwar district after garnering 2,621 votes, while BJP’s Sharda Bhau won from the highest margin of 8,880 votes against the Congress rival Anuradha Sharma from the Akhnoor constituency of Jammu district. Sharda Bhau obtained 14,619 votes to Anuradha Sharma’s 5,739.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
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