Mixed verdict in Kupwara

Kupwara, Oct 8: All eyes were fixed on Tuesday at the counting centres established at Government Degree College Kupwara and Industrial Training Institute (ITI) Handwara as people were eager to know the updates and results throughout the day.

With the addition of the Trehgam constituency after the recent delimitation, the tally rose to six assembly segments in Kupwara.

The counting of four assembly segments including Kupwara, Lolab, Trehgam, and Karnah was carried out at Government Degree College Kupwara while the votes of Langate and Handwara constituencies were put to count at ITI Handwara.

As the day progressed, the situation turned interesting and anxious but it was Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s Mir Fayaz who first registered his win defeating his nearest rival Nasir Aslam Wani of the National Conference (NC).

Fayaz bagged 27,773 votes while NC’s Provincial President Wani secured 17,976 votes losing by a margin of 9797 votes.

Peoples Conference (PC) Chairman Sajad Gani Lone who was also contesting from Kupwara managed to secure 7457 votes. AIP's Firdous Baba got 5672 votes.

Qaisar Jamsheed Lone of NC registered a convincing win from the Lolab assembly segment.

He bagged 19,603 votes while AIP’s Dawood Bashir Bhat remained in the second spot getting 11,732 votes. Qaisar won by a margin of 7871 votes.

Trehgam constituency witnessed an interesting contest between NC's Mir Saifullah and PC's Bashir Ahmad Dar with Saifullah winning by a margin of 3626 votes bagging 18,002 votes against Dar’s 14,376 votes.

Karnah constituency turned out to be a cakewalk for NC as the party’s candidate Javaid Ahmad Mirchal bagged 14,294 votes and won by a margin of 6262 votes defeating his nearest rival Naseer Ahmad Awan of PC.

Handwara constituency produced a nail-biting result which went to Sajad Lone but NC's Chowdhary Muhammad Ramzan gave him a tough fight.

Sajad registered a win by a narrow margin of 662 votes getting 29,812 votes against Ramzan’s 29,150 votes.

Awami Ittehad Party witnessed stiff competition in Langate where Member of Parliament Engineer Rashid's younger brother, Sheikh Khursheed won by a margin of 1602 votes.

He bagged a total of 25,984 votes while his nearest rival Irfan Panditpori of PC got 24,382 votes.