J&K Election Results 2024: BJP’s Darshan Kumar polled 31,874 votes compared to Lal Singh’s 15,840.
New Delhi: The BJP has won Basholi seat in Jammu, the Election Commission announced this afternnon, declaring its first result in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly election. The seat was won by Darshan Kumar of the BJP. He defeated Congress’s Choudhary Lal Singh to win the seat in Kathua district.
BJP’s Darshan Kumar polled 31,874 votes compared to Lal Singh’s 15,840.
The saffron party is also leading in newly-formed Shri Mata Vaishno Devi seat in the Jammu region, trends showed. The new seat that was formed after the delimitation exercise holds religious importance for the saffron party.
According to the Election Commission, BJP candidate Baldev Raj Sharma is leading Shri Mata Vaishno Devi seat with a margin of over 1,500 votes against his nearest rival, Congress’s Bhupinder Singh. The seat is witnessing a three-way contest between BJP’s Baldev Raj Sharma, Congress candidate Bhupinder Singh and Partap Krishan Sharma from PDP.
One of the 90 Assembly constituencies, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi is part of Jammu parliamentary constituency. The seat is located in Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir. This will be the first Assembly election in a decade in the Jammu and Kashmir valley, following its designation as a Union Territory in August 2019 after the abrogation of Article 370.
The saffron party, however, is a distant second as the Congress-National Conference alliance races to halfway mark in the union territory. Per trends, the Congress-NC alliance was leading in 51 seats while the BJP is ahead in 27 seats.
Exit polls have predicted a hung assembly. The Congress-NC alliance is likely to secure more seats in the House with the majority of the Exit polls predicting 46-50 seats for the alliance. The BJP is likely to win 23 to 27 seats, making it the second-largest party in the Union Territory, per People’s Pulse exit poll shows. Matrize exit poll also predicted that the BJP is trailing behind Congress-NC.
The BJP, which went solo in the election, has never ruled Jammu and Kashmir on its own. The saffron party formed the government with the PDP after the 2014 election and pulled out of the alliance in 2018. The following year, it scrapped the Constitution’s Article 370 which gave Jammu and Kashmir its special status and divided the state into two Union Territories. This is the first assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir in a decade.
Warning: The exit polls do not always get it right. They have been way off the mark in the past. The most recent example being the general elections.
Amid exit poll predictions of a hung assembly in the union territory, National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah said he is open to a strategic post-poll alliance with the People’s Democratic Party to keep the Bharatiya Janata Party out of power after the 2024 Jammu and Kashmir Assembly election.
“Even if we don’t need it, we will take the support (from PDP) because if we have to go ahead, we have to do it together. We all have to make an effort to save this state. This state is in a lot of difficulties,” said Abdullah, according to news agency ANI.
Mr Abdullah, 86, however, ruled out any chance of staking claim to the Chief Minister’s post should his alliance win the election.
Jammu And Kashmir Elections
The Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections, the first in nearly a decade, were held in three phases on September 18, September 25 and October 1. The union territory witnessed a voter turnout of 61.38 per cent in the first phase and 57.31 per cent in the second phase. A voter turnout of 65.48 per cent was recorded till 5 pm in the third and final phase held on October 1.
Jammu and Kashmir has 90 Assembly constituencies, including 7 reserved for SCs and 9 reserved for STs. According to the Election Commission of India, there are 8.806 million eligible voters in the region. According to the Election Commission of India, Jammu and Kashmir has 88.06 lakh eligible voters.
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