With Gupkar Alliance getting a clear majority in many of the districts in Jammu and Kashmir District Development Council election and the BJP emerging as the single largest party, both the alliance of the regional parties of J&K and the BJP attempted to project the verdict in their favour.
BJP’s DDC polls in-charge Anurag Thakur said the election results are a befitting reply to Mehbooba Mufti who had refused to unfurl the Tricolour. “Independent candidates have polled more votes than the Congress and the PDP. The same Mehbooba Mufti who’d refused to unfurl the Tricolour has got a befitting reply today,” Anurag Thakur said.
Mehbooba Mufti’s tricolour comment stoked a major controversy as she had said she will hoist the tricolour only when the state flag of erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir will be allowed.
This was the first-ever poll in Jammu and Kashmir after it was turned into a union territory. To contest this election, the local parties of Jammu and Kashmir came together and formed Gupkar Alliance, which is near the majority mark. The alliance has won 110 seats but the BJP has emerged as the single-largest party by getting 75 seats and the maximum vote share in Jammu and Kashmir.
“The trust which the J&K people have put in Modiji, the support which they’ve shown to his policies and to his work to strengthen the democratic principles, are the reasons why BJP has got 3 seats in the Kashmir Valley,” Anurag Thakur said.
Here is where the parties stand as of now:
The results of four constituencies – one each in Bandipora and Kupwara districts of north Kashmir and Poonch and Rajouri districts in Jammu region – were still awaited.
Out of the 276 seats for which results have been declared so far, Independent candidates have won 49, ahead of Congress (26) and Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP (27). But PDP is part of the winning alliance.
Omar Abdullah, on the other hand, questioned how BJP could be the single largest party while the National Conference did not contest from many seats because of the alliance. Countering BJP’s ‘victory of democracy’ claim, Omar Abdullah said had BJP believed in democracy, they would have announced Assembly elections by now. “With this defeat, I don’t think BJP government will conduct Assembly elections here anytime soon. They would have announced the polls by now had they believed in democracy. So, we have time to strengthen our party,” he said.
“We must also accept that there are some weaknesses in our organisation in some areas. We were expecting to win the election at some seats but could not,” he added.
