Meet J&K assembly election’s biggest champs, tightest survivors

Srinagar, Oct 12: The results of the first assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370 watched closely watched by political analysts and the public alike revealed interesting trends with some candidates winning by massive margins while others scraped through with narrow victories.

The most decisive victory came from BJP’s Devender Rana, who won from the Nagrota constituency by a margin of 30,472 votes.

Rana, a former National Conference (NC) member who switched allegiances to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), emerged as the candidate with the highest margin in this election.

Not far behind him was Surjit Singh Slathia, another former NC leader turned BJP candidate, who secured the Samba seat with a margin of 30,309 votes.

These two victories, with margins exceeding 30,000 votes, underscored the strong foothold the BJP has established in certain key constituencies of Jammu.

Another notable victory came from Ghulam Ahmad Mir, the former J&K Congress President.

He won the Dooru constituency with a significant margin of 29,728 votes.

Several other candidates won by substantial margins, particularly in the Jammu region, where the BJP demonstrated considerable strength.

Surinder Kumar of the BJP won from Math with a margin of 23,086 votes while Arvind Gupta won from Jammu West by 22,127, and Mohan Lal secured victory by 24,679 votes.

Sham Lal Sharma, another BJP candidate, won in Jammu North by a margin of 27,363 votes and Pawan Kumar clinched the Udhampur West seat with a lead of 20,752 votes.

Ajaz Ahmad Jan of the NC also registered a solid win in Poonch Haveli, securing his seat with a margin of 20,879 votes.

However, not all victories were won so easily.

The closest race of the election occurred in Tral where People’s Democratic Party’s Rafiq Ahmad managed to win by a mere 460 votes, marking the smallest margin of the entire election.

Other tight races included BJP’s Shagun Parihar, who won the Kishtwar seat by just 521 votes, and Javaid Riyaz of the NC, who took the Pattan constituency by 603 votes.

People’s Conference leader Sajad Gani Lone secured the Handwara seat with a narrow margin of 662 votes.

Other slim victories were recorded by Peerzada Feroze Ahmad of the NC, who won the Devsar seat by 840 votes, and Nizamuddin Bhat who claimed the Bandipora seat by a margin of 811 votes.

The varying margins of victory, from massive to minimal, underscore the competitive nature of this election, which was closely fought across different constituencies.