In the maiden Assembly elections in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, the National Conference is poised to form its government after a gap of 16 years. The National Conference is going to form the government with the support of its pre-poll alliance partners the Congress and CPIM.
Some rebel National Conference candidates, who contested Assembly elections as Independent candidates, would also support the National Conference.
In the 2008 Assembly elections, the National Conference (NC) formed an alliance with the Congress, leading to Omar Abdullah's appointment as Chief Minister of the former state of Jammu and Kashmir.
However, the NC-Congress alliance lost power in 2014. Now, despite regaining a majority, Jammu and Kashmir has been reorganized into a Union Territory (UT).
This time, the NC and Congress have entered a pre-poll alliance, with the National Conference contesting 51 out of 90 Assembly seats, while Congress fields candidates in 32 constituencies. They also have "friendly contests" in five other seats. Additionally, one seat has been allotted to the CPI(M) and another to the J&K National Panthers Party.
The NC has won 42 seats and Congress secured six seats along with a seat of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPIM. All these parties have entered into a pre-poll alliance.
While the NC emerged as the single-largest party, the BJP emerged as the second single-largest party with 29 seats in its kitty.
The BJP has won 29 seats, while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has secured three seats and seven seats have gone to the Independents across the Union Territory.
NC sweeps Kashmir Valley
First time after the 1996 Assembly elections, the National Conference completely swept Kashmir Valley by winning a majority of the 47 seats.
A wave of the National Conference in the Kashmir Valley can be gauged from the fact that party leader Omar Abdullah won from both Budgam and Ganderbal seats comfortably.
While Congress won five seats in Kashmir with the support of the NC and CPIM candidate also emerged victorious with the help the NC.
The PDP, which is an arch-rival of the NC in Kashmir Valley, is confined to only three seats. One seat each was won by the Peoples Conference and Awami Ittehad Party. One Independent Shabir Ahmed Kullay won from Shopian seat.
While the National Conference swept Kashmir Valley, the BJP maintained its dominance in Jammu province by winning 29 out of the total 43 Assembly segments of this region.
In the 2014 Assembly elections, BJP had won 25 seats and this time party has reached the tally of all-time high of 29 seats. BJP won all the seats of Jammu, Udhampur, and Samba districts while losing one seat of Kathua district to an Independent.
Prominent Winners
- Omar Abdullah
- Sunil Sharma
- Ali Mohmmad Sagar
- Abdul Rahim Rather
- Tariq Hameed Karra
- Ghulam Ahmad Mir
- M Y Tarigami
- Sham Lal Sharma
- Devender Singh Rana
Prominent Losers
- Ravinder Raina
- Iltiza Mufti
- Tara Chand
- Raman Bhalla
- Choudhary Lal Singh
- Choudhary Mohammad Ramzan
- Sajjad Ahmed Kitchloo
- Nasir Aslam Wani
- Choudhary Zulfikar
Despite increasing its tally from 25 to 29, the BJP suffered a severe setback as J&K unit president of the party Ravinder Raina lost the election from the Nowshera constituency at the hands of National Conference candidate Surinder Choudhary. The party also failed to secure a win on any of the Muslim majority seats of the twin border districts of Poonch and Rajouri.
BJP secures highest vote share and gets less seats
With a 24.64 percent vote share in its kitty, the BJP on Tuesday emerged as the largest party in J&K, winning three out of total 29 assembly seats in its kitty. Despite getting less number of seats as compared to the National Conference BJP emerged as the single largest part as far as vote share is concerned.
The NC, which won 42 seats, got 23.43 percent vote share, followed by 11.97 of Congress and 8.87 of the PDP.
Earlier in the 2014 Assembly elections in J&K, BJP had emerged as the single largest party by securing 23 percent votes, followed by PDP with 22.7 percent, NC with 20.8 percent, and Congress with 18 percent.
