NC-Congress alliance consolidates lead in J&K

Srinagar, Oct 08: The NC-Congress alliance seems to have consolidated its lead in 50 seats while BJP was ahead on 26 and the PDP in three Assembly seats among the major political parties in Jammu and Kashmir, as per the latest Election Commission of India (ECI) data.

A significant takeaway of these elections is that despite drawing huge crowds during his poll rallies across Kashmir, Engineer Rashid has failed to get the lead in any Assembly constituency.

The National Conference (NC) on its own has established a firm lead in 42 seats and the Congress 9.

J&K PDP is leading in four seats. Apni Party headed by Syed Altaf Bukhari is a big loser in these elections.

Among the prominent winners could be Omar Abdullah from both the Budgam and Ganderbal constituencies.

Iltija Mufti, daughter of former chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti and PDP candidate is trailing and likely to lose her first election.

In all probability, the next elected government in J&K is going to be made by the NC-Congress alliance. The two alliance partners might not need support from any other party or Independents to stake claim to power in the union territory.

J&K after fresh delimitation of Assembly constituencies has 90 seats out of which nine are ST and seven SC seats.

The political fate of 873 candidates, including senior leaders of the National Conference (NC), BJP, Congress, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), People's ConferenceC, Apni Party, CPI(M), Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) and Independent candidates will be decided.

Chief electoral officer P.K. Pole told reporters that 28 counting centres were set up across Jammu and Kashmir for counting votes. Postal votes will be counted first.

Lt Governor Manoj Sinha will nominate five members to the Assembly on the Ministry of Home Affairs' recommendations.

Among these five, two will be women, two Migrant Kashmiri Pandits, one of whom should be a woman, and one representative of the West Pakistan refugees.

This will be the first elected government to be formed in Jammu and Kashmir post abrogation of Article 370.

The just concluded legislative Assembly election recorded a voter turnout of 63.45 per cent which is less than the 65.52 per cent recorded in the 2014 Assembly elections.

The Assembly poll was held in three phases on September 18, September 25 and October 1. In the first phase, 24 seats went to the poll, in the second phase, 26 and in the third phase, 40 seats went to the poll.