Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday won the bypoll to the Anantnag Assembly constituency by more than 12,000 votes.
After 10 rounds of counting, Mehbooba secured more than 16,000 votes against her nearest rival and Congress candidate Hilal Ahmad Shah who got 5,529 votes. National Conference candidate Iftikhar Misger was a distant third, securing 2,702 votes, district election officials said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose party is in a coalition government with Mehbooba’s PDP, was quick to congratulate her.
57-year-old Mehbooba was among eight candidates in the bypoll for Anantnag Assembly seat which was necessitated due to death of incumbent MLA and then chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on January 7 this year.
The voting was held on June 22. Of the 28,446 voters, interestingly, 356 chose NOTA option in the bypoll.
This will be Mehbooba’s fourth term in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly.
She was first elected to the Assembly in 1996 on a Congress ticket from Bijbehara constituency.
She won in 2002 from Pahalgam and again in 2008 from Wachi seat in Shopian district.
