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Omar Abdullah loses to Independent independent candidate Er. Rashid
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Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti accept their defeat
Two former Jammu & Kashmir chief ministers lost their seats with huge margins as the counting of votes concluded on Tuesday. In Baramulla, jailed former legislator Abdul Rashid Sheikh, an independent candidate, defeated former CM and national conference candidate Omar Abdullah by over 200,000 votes. However, the exit polls had predicted a victory for Abdullah.
Rashid is lodged in Tihar Jail in an Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act case. His campaign was run by his son, Abrar Rashid, a university student. In a post on X, Abdullah accepted his defeat and said: “I think it’s time to accept the inevitable. Congratulations to Engineer Rashid on his victory in North Kashmir.”
While another former CM and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti failed to retain Anantnag-Rajouri constituency and lost by 281,794 votes to NC candidate Mian Altaf Ahmad, who polled 521,836 votes.
Conceding defeat, Mehbooba posted on X: “Respecting the verdict of the people, I thank PDP workers and leaders for their hard work and support despite all the odds. My deepest gratitude to the people who voted for me. Winning and losing is part of the game and won’t deter us from our path. Congratulations to Mian sahab on his victory.”
In Srinagar, considered to be a bastion of NC where its founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah would draw huge crowds, party candidate Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi defeated PDP’s Waheed Ur Rehman Para by over 188,000 votes. Since 1987, the NC has represented Srinagar 10 times except in 2014 and 1996 when PDP and Congress had wrestled the seat respectively. In the 2019 general polls, NC president Farooq Abdullah won from Srinagar, that witnessed a dismal polling figure of 14.4%.
“A big thank you to the people of Srinagar, Pulwama, Ganderbal, Shopian and Budgam for this mandate and showing faith in me. I am humbled and I am aware of the responsibility that this mandate brings with it. You have spoken democratically and spoken against the decisions of Aug 5, 2019,” said Agha Ruhullah Mehdi on his election win.
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) repeated its performance of 2019 as incumbent MPs Jugal Kishore Sharma and Jitendra Singh won from Jammu and Udhampur parliamentary seats, respectively.
However compared to last elections, Congress managed to reduce the winning margin of BJP on both seats. Union minister Jitendra Singh bagged 571,076 votes while his rival Congress candidate Choudhary Lal Singh got 446,703 defeating Singh by 124,373 votes.
BJP’s two-time MP Jugal Kishore secured his third win from Jammu defeating Congress candidate Raman Bhalla by a margin of 135,498 votes. This is the first parliamentary election in Union territory after the abrogation of Article 370. The elections to the five seats in the state were held in five phases.
The only seat of Ladakh was won by former NC leader Mohmad Hanefa who contested as an independent candidate by defeating Congress and BJP candidates. In a post on X, political analyst Sheikh Showkat said, “Voters of JK & Ladakh have overwhelmingly rejected stance of BJP + proxies & penalised Omar Abdullah & Mehbooba for their collaboration.”
Meanwhile, Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah conceded his defeat from the Baramulla Lok Sabha seat and expressed his good wishes to independent candidate and former legislator Engineer Abdul Rashid who is currently lodged in Tihar jail on UAPA charges.
The Jammu & Kashmir National Conference vice president was trailing with 1.29 lakh votes. Exit polls had predicted Abdullah’s win. However, since the counting began at Baramulla Degree College on Tuesday, Rashid has maintained his lead from the beginning, which has been consolidating with each round of counting. “I think it’s time to accept the inevitable. Congratulations to Engineer Rashid for his victory in North Kashmir. I don’t believe his victory will hasten his release from prison nor will the people of North Kashmir get the representation they have a right to but the voters have spoken and in a democracy that’s all that matters,” Abdullah wrote on X.
Of the six seats of J&K and Ladakh, the National Conference is leading in two constituencies, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in two and Independents in two seats each. Rashid contested the elections as an Independent from Tihar Jail. His campaign was run by his son, Abrar Rashid, a university student.
Rashid polled 291,610 votes, leading by 134,705 votes against Abdullah, who got 156,905 votes. People’s Conference chairman Sajjad Lone is in the third spot with 98,603 votes.
Meanwhile, People’s Democratic Party president and also a former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti was trailing in Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha constituency by 222,831 votes to National Conference’s candidate Mian Altaf, who has so far got 432,590 votes.
Mufti, who also conceded her defeat from the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat, wrote on X, “Respecting the verdict of the people I thank my PDP workers & leaders for their hard work & support despite all the odds. My deepest gratitude to the people who voted for me. Winning & losing is part of the game & won’t deter us from our path. Congratulations to Mian Sahab for his victory”.
While the National Conference’s Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi is leading against his People’s Democratic Front rival Waheed Para in the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat, the BJP’s incumbent MPs Jugal Kishore Sharma and Jitendra Singh are leading from Jammu and Udhampur, respectively.
In Ladakh, Independent candidate Haneefa Jan is leading by over 27,997 votes against the Congress candidate. The BJP, which had won the seat in 2019, is at third spot.
Who is Sheikh Abdul Rashid alias Engineer Rashid?
- Abdul Rashid alias Engineer Rashid is currently lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail in a terror-funding case.
- , a former two-time MLA who heads the Awami Ittehad Party, was one of 22 candidates in the fray from Baramulla.
- Engineer Rashid was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2019 on charges of terror-funding activities, becoming the first mainstream leader to be held under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
- His two sons Abrar Rashid and Asrar Rashid, who led the election campaign for their father, expressed confidence that the massive crowds witnessed in the rallies would turn into votes for Rashid, leading to his release from prison.
- Engineer Rashi won the Langate assembly segment in 2008 and 2014 and also unsuccessfully contested the 2019 parliamentary elections. While he leads the Awami Ittehad Party, he contested these elections as an Independent.
