Congress loses gains achieved during LS polls from Jammu assembly segments

Jammu, Oct 11: Within three months, Congress lost its gains in assembly segments of the Jammu region where it had surpassed its traditional rival Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during the Lok Sabha elections of 2024.

A cursory glance at the results of the J&K Assembly elections – 2024, demonstrates it.

Congress, despite being in alliance with the National Conference, could bag only one seat in the Jammu region this time.

Though reasons vary and in some cases, ‘friendly contests’ snatched victories from Congress.

During the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, it (Congress) had managed a lead over BJP candidates in seven assembly segments out of a total of 36 (segments) spread in two parliamentary constituencies of Jammu and Udhampur.

From the Rajouri-Anantnag parliamentary constituency, the National Conference had fielded its candidate Mian Altaf while the BJP had not fielded any candidate.

On the other hand, Jammu and Udhampur constituencies were contested by Congress and BJP was its main opponent.

During LS polls, in the case of the Jammu parliamentary constituency, BJP candidate Jugal Kishore Sharma lagged behind Congress candidate Raman Bhalla in three assembly segments i.e., Gulabgarh (in Reasi district), Suchetgarh and R S Pura (in Jammu district).

Out of these three seats, Congress lost both Suchetgarh and R S Pura-Jammu South seats during the assembly elections 2024.

In Suchetgarh (SC), BJP’s Gharu Ram defeated Congress’ Bhushan Lal with a margin of 11141 votes while in R S Pura-Jammu South seat, former minister and Congress candidate Raman Bhalla was trounced by BJP candidate Narinder Singh Raina by 1966 votes.

The Gulabgarh assembly segment has been won by Congress’ ally National Conference’s candidate Khurshid Ahmed in the 2024 assembly elections defeating independent candidate Aijaz Ahmed Khan by a margin of 6527 votes. Congress did not contest this segment. BJP candidate Mohd Akram finished third.

During LS polls 2024, Congress candidate Chowdhary Lal Singh had managed a lead over his opponent BJP’s Jitendra Singh in four assembly segments i.e., in Inderwal (in Kishtwar district), Bhaderwah, Doda (in Doda district) and Banihal (in Ramban district).

During the 2024 assembly polls, out of these four seats, BJP could win only the Bhaderwah assembly segment yet Congress, which contested in Inderwal, Doda, and Bhaderwah lost all of them.

In Inderwal, NC’s rebel candidate Pyare Lal Sharma as an independent defeated another independent and former minister G M Saroori with 643 votes. Congress candidate Mohd Zafarullah finished third.

From Doda, Aam Aadmi Party’s Mehraj Malik sprang a surprise and defeated BJP candidate Gajay Singh Rana by a margin of 4538 votes while NC (Khalid Najeeb Suharwardy) and Congress (Sheikh Riaz Ahmed) finished third and fifth respectively. Probably ‘friendly contest’ proved costly to the alliance partners.

Ditto was the scenario - ‘divided we fall’ in Bhaderwah. Both NC and Congress contested this seat, which ultimately went to BJP’s Daleep Singh. He won by a margin of 10130 votes defeating NC candidate Sheikh Mehboob Iqbal. Congress candidate Nadeem Sharief finished third.

Ironically, in the Banihal assembly segment, Congress candidate, Vikar Rasool Wani, former minister and ex PCC President was defeated by the alliance partner NC’s candidate Sajjad Shaheen. Vikar Rasool finished third. Sajjad defeated his close rival PDP’s Imtiaz Ahmed Shan by 6110 votes.

During the parliamentary polls of 2024, the BJP was ahead of the Congress-NC combine in 29 assembly segments out of a total of 43 in the Jammu region.

Interestingly, it bagged exactly 29 seats during the 2024 assembly polls, but also lost some of the seats where it was leading during the 2024 parliamentary polls.

During the Lok Sabha polls 2024, in the Banihal segment, Chowdhary Lal Singh of Congress had managed an overwhelming lead of 37,820 votes over Jitendra.

Similarly, Raman Bhalla of Congress had scored a substantial lead of 36517 votes over Jugal in the Gulabgarh (ST) assembly segment during the LS polls 2024.

During LS polls, in Suchetgarh (SC), BJP had found it trailing by 4806 votes; in R S Pura-Jammu South, BJP lagged behind Congress by 6364 votes.

During LS polls-2024, in Inderwal, Jitendra Singh had got 11671 while Lal Singh bagged 16832 votes. BJP had lagged behind Congress by 5161 votes. In Bhaderwah, BJP had 34402, Congress 35131, managing a lead of 729 votes. Similarly in Doda, BJP had polled 18229, Congress 37715, thus lagging behind it (Congress) by 19486 votes.

Notably, during the LS polls 2024, PDP too had supported Congress candidates from Jammu and Udhampur seats.