Express News Service
SRINAGAR: The results of repolling in two District Development Council (DDC) seats in the twin districts of Kupwara and Bandipore of Jammu and Kashmir sprung a surprise on Thursday. The National Conference (NC) suffered a setback in its stronghold of Bandipora while the Peoples Conference (PC), which has emerged as a strong political force in north Kashmir, lost in both the seats.
Independent candidate Nazah Begum, who was backed by the Apni Party, won the election from Hajin-A seat of Bandipora. She secured 2,706 votes, winning against Atiqa Begum of Peoples Conference, who got 2,283 votes.
Hajin is considered the stronghold of NC, and its MP from north Kashmir, Mohammad Akbar Lone, hails from the area. The loss from the seat is a jolt to the NC as Lone’s son Hilal Akbar Lone was leading the party’s campaign for the seat.
In Dragmulla seat of Kupwara, NC-backed independent candidate Amina Majeed won by a thin margin of 39 votes. She secured 3,259 votes while her nearest rival Shabnam Rehman of Peoples Conference got 3,220 votes.
Shabnam had contested the DDC polls in 2020 on a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ticket but switched to Peoples Conference later. Despite being a PC candidate, she contested the polls on the inkpot and pen symbol of the PDP. The PDP asked its supporters not to vote on the party symbol.
The result on both the DDC seats has come as a setback for former minister Sajjad Gani Lone’s PC, which had emerged as a strong north Kashmir-based party after many leaders of other parties joined it after the fall of the PDP-BJP coalition government in 2018.
The PDP was also in for a disappointing surprise as the party backed candidate Rifat Jan secured fewer votes than BJP’s Shakeela Akther. Jan secured only 612 votes while Akther bagged 877 votes. The first-ever DDC polls in J&K took place in November-December 2020.
The repolling, held on December 5, was necessitated since the counting of votes in the two seats was withheld in 2020 after two PoK residents Soomia Sadaf and Shazia Aslam were found to have contested the polls. Both the contestants were disqualified and polls to the two DDC seats were declared void by the State Election Commission.
Bandipora jolt to Farooq AbdullahThe National Conference suffered a setback in its stronghold of Bandipora while the Peoples Conference, which has emerged as a strong force in north Kashmir, lost in both the seats. The PDP was also in for a surprise as the party backed candidate Rifat Jan got fewer votes than BJP’s Shakeela Akther
SRINAGAR: The results of repolling in two District Development Council (DDC) seats in the twin districts of Kupwara and Bandipore of Jammu and Kashmir sprung a surprise on Thursday. The National Conference (NC) suffered a setback in its stronghold of Bandipora while the Peoples Conference (PC), which has emerged as a strong political force in north Kashmir, lost in both the seats.
Independent candidate Nazah Begum, who was backed by the Apni Party, won the election from Hajin-A seat of Bandipora. She secured 2,706 votes, winning against Atiqa Begum of Peoples Conference, who got 2,283 votes.
Hajin is considered the stronghold of NC, and its MP from north Kashmir, Mohammad Akbar Lone, hails from the area. The loss from the seat is a jolt to the NC as Lone’s son Hilal Akbar Lone was leading the party’s campaign for the seat.
In Dragmulla seat of Kupwara, NC-backed independent candidate Amina Majeed won by a thin margin of 39 votes. She secured 3,259 votes while her nearest rival Shabnam Rehman of Peoples Conference got 3,220 votes.
Shabnam had contested the DDC polls in 2020 on a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ticket but switched to Peoples Conference later. Despite being a PC candidate, she contested the polls on the inkpot and pen symbol of the PDP. The PDP asked its supporters not to vote on the party symbol.
The result on both the DDC seats has come as a setback for former minister Sajjad Gani Lone’s PC, which had emerged as a strong north Kashmir-based party after many leaders of other parties joined it after the fall of the PDP-BJP coalition government in 2018.
The PDP was also in for a disappointing surprise as the party backed candidate Rifat Jan secured fewer votes than BJP’s Shakeela Akther. Jan secured only 612 votes while Akther bagged 877 votes.
The first-ever DDC polls in J&K took place in November-December 2020.
The repolling, held on December 5, was necessitated since the counting of votes in the two seats was withheld in 2020 after two PoK residents Soomia Sadaf and Shazia Aslam were found to have contested the polls. Both the contestants were disqualified and polls to the two DDC seats were declared void by the State Election Commission.
Bandipora jolt to Farooq Abdullah
The National Conference suffered a setback in its stronghold of Bandipora while the Peoples Conference, which has emerged as a strong force in north Kashmir, lost in both the seats. The PDP was also in for a surprise as the party backed candidate Rifat Jan got fewer votes than BJP’s Shakeela Akther
