Jammu: In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP has secured three seats in Jammu and Kashmir and National Conference led by Farooq Abdullah has won two seats in the Kashmir region and is leading in one. However, PDP-led by Mehbooba Mufti could not open its account.
National Conference president Farooq Abdullah and Union minister Jitendra Singh are among the prominent faces to make it to the 17th Lok Sabha from the state which sends six MPs to the lower house. Former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti finished third in Anantnag.
The seat has been won by National Conference candidate and former High Court judge Hasnain Masoodi whose nearest rival was Ghulam Ahmad Mir of the Congress. According to the Election Commission website, while Masoodi polled 40,180 votes, Mir got 33,504 and Mufti got 30,524 votes.
BJP’s Jitendra Singh contesting from the Udhampur seat of Jammu region won by 3.57 lakh votes and defeated Congress’ Vikramaditya Singh. According to official reports, this is considered the highest margin of victory for any successful candidate in the State till now. Singh got 61.38 per cent votes. He had defeated former Union minister and Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad in 2014. The BJP’s Jugal Kishore defeated Raman Bhalla of the Congress by 3,02,875 votes on the Jammu seat.
The party’s J T Namgyal won the Ladakh seat defeating Independent candidate and journalist-turned-politician Sajjad Hussain by over 10,000 votes. Rebel Congress candidate spoiled the game for the grand old party and Hussain by so far bagging 29,000 votes. For the NC, 83-year-old Abdullah got 1,06,750 votes and defeated Aga Syed Mohsin of the PDP by 70,050 votes in the Srinagar constituency.
This will be Abdullah’s fourth term in the Lok Sabha, having been a member in 1980, 2009 and 2017 previously. The Congress is set to draw a blank in the state even though the National Conference and the PDP had not fielded candidates for Jammu and Udhampur seats in order to consolidate anti-BJP vote. In the Baramulla constituency, the most-keenly contested seat in Kashmir region both in terms of candidates and people’s participation, NC candidate Mohammad Akbar Lone is leading by over 30,000 votes.
The former Assembly speaker is followed by Raja Aijaz Ali of the People’s Conference and Independent candidate Sheikh Abdul Rashid. PDP candidate Abdul Qayoom Wani stands a distant third. In 2014, the BJP had won three seats – two in the Jammu reagin and the Ladakh seat – while the PDP had swept all three seats in the Valley. However, Abdullah had won the Lok Sabha bypoll to the Srinagar seat in 2017.