Kashmir dynasties: Mehbooba Mufti fails, Sajjad Lone scrapes through, Omar Abdullah shines

New Delhi: As the Abdullah family registered a big win in the J&K Assembly elections, other dynasties failed to garner electoral support.

The worst day was for the Mufti dynasty which managed to win only three seats out of the 90 Assembly constituencies, and its, newest family member to enter politics also lost the election.

Mehbooba Mufti’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had secured 28 seats in 2014 when the last Assembly election was held. The party formed the government in Jammu and Kashmir in 2015 in an alliance with the BJP. The BJP, however, withdrew its support in 2018.

But in the October 8 verdict, the people gave a thumbs down to the party.

The PDP chief’s daughter, Iltija Mufti, lost her first Assembly polls from the Srigufwara-Bijbehara in South Kashmir, a seat which has been a PDP stronghold for the past few decades. The Bijbehara Assembly seat, before delimitation, was previously represented by Iltija Muft’s grandfather and former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and her mother Mehbooba Mufti. Losing the seat is a major blow to the Muftis.

If Mufti’s had a very bad day, another dynasty managed to keep the show on.

Sajad Gani Lone of the Jammu & Kashmir People Conference won the Handwara seat, with a wafer-thin margin of just 622 votes. He secured 29,812 votes and his nearest rival Chowdry Mohammad Ramzan of the National Conference got 29,150 votes, according to the Election Commission of India (ECI).

However, he lost the Kupwara constituency by a significant margin of over 20,316 votes to PDP’s Mir Mohammad Fayaz. Lone, in fact, was third after Fayaz and NC’s Nasir Aslam Wani.

In the 2014 Assembly elections, Lone defeated NC’s Ramzan by over 5,000 votes in Handwara and subsequently served as a minister in the PDP-BJP coalition government under Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

Sajad Lone’s father, Abdul Gani Lone, won the seat three times in a row in 1967, 1972 and 1977. He contested two elections as a Congress candidate and fought a third one as a Janata Party candidate.

The star of the day, however, was the Abdullah family.

Omar Abdullah won the Budgam and Ganderbal Assembly seats in Kashmir by big margins.

He defeated PDP’s Aga Syed Muntazir Mehdi in Badgam with a margin of more than 18,485 votes.

The NC vice president polled 36,010 votes in Budgam, one of the two constituencies he contested in the Jammu and Kashmir elections this time.

In Ganderbal, he defeated PDP candidate Bashir Ahmad Mir by a margin of 10,574 votes. Omar Abdullah polled 32,727 votes here.

With this win, Omar Abdullah has reclaimed his electoral weight in the UT, especially in the valley. He lost the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Baramulla which was won by Engineer Rashid.

Perceiving the win in the Assembly elections when the early trends came in, his father, NC chief and Lok Sabha member, Farooq Abdullah announced that his son would become the Chief Minister.

Omar Abdullah was the J&K CM from 2009 to 2015. His father, Farooq Abdullah and his grandfather Sheikh Mohd Abdullah also were the CMs.

The win in the 2014 Assembly elections for Abdullahs reaffirms the dynasty’s hold in Kashmir politics.

IANS

 

Midnight swoop in rooms of Congress women leaders’ hotel rooms turns tense

Palakkad: Senior Congress leaders on Wednesday were up in arms over the midnight swoop by Kerala Police in the hotel rooms of senior women Congress leaders staying in Palakkad, who...

Dawoodi Bohra community demands exclusion from Waqf law in JPC meeting

New Delhi: As the bickering between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Opposition MPs continues over the Waqf Amendment Bill, the Dawoodi Bohra community has demanded to exclude...

J&K Assembly passes resolution to restore Article 370 amid uproar by BJP

Srinagar: The Jammu & Kashmir legislative Assembly passed a resolution for the restoration of Article 370 amid an uproar on Wednesday. The resolution was moved by the Deputy Chief Minister,...

Caste census to develop a framework for country’s progress: Rahul Gandhi

Hyderabad: Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said on Tuesday that a national caste census will develop a framework of progress and the caste census in Telangana would...

‘Don’t want to contest any more elections’: Sharad Pawar says he wants to hang up boots

Pune: Creating shock among the gathering and protests from his supporters, Nationalist Congress Party-SP President Sharad Pawar, who will turn 84 next month, on Tuesday indicated that he wants to...

K’taka Police registers FIR against Kumaraswamy, son on SIT Lokayukta’s complaint

Bengaluru: Karnataka Police registered an FIR against Union Minister for Heavy Industries and Steel, H.D. Kumaraswamy, on Tuesday as per the directions of a court. The petition in this regard...

Waqf Bill: Oppn MPs meet LS Speaker, lodge protest against JPC chairman Jagdambika Pal

New Delhi: The Opposition lawmakers, who are part of the Parliamentary committee on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Tuesday to register their protest against...

No other leader in world attacked by Oppn like Rahul Gandhi: Priyanka in Wayanad

Wayanad: The Congress-led UDF candidate Priyanka Gandhi said on Tuesday that no other leader in the world has been attacked by the opposition like the Leader in the Opposition (LoP)...

Defeat conspiracies to divide Indian origin on communal lines in Canada: Akali Dal

Chandigarh: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Working President Balwinder Singh Bhunder on Tuesday condemned incidents of violence outside religious places in Canada and appealed to people of Indian origin to defeat...

Siddaramaiah’s resignation timing has been decided, claims K’taka BJP

Bengaluru: Karnataka BJP State President and MLA B.Y. Vijayendra claimed on Tuesday that the timing for Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s resignation has been decided. He added Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Chief...

MP CM approves reservation for women upto 35 pc

Bhopal: In a major step towards women's empowerment, the Madhya Pradesh government on Tuesday increased the reservation quota for women up to 35 per in all state government services.  ...

Omar Abdullah says had Vajpayee been alive, J&K wouldn’t be a UT

Srinagar :Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah said on Tuesday that the erstwhile state would not have been downgraded to a Union Territory had the road map of...

Read Previous

Defying Exit Poll results, BJP crosses majority mark in Haryana by winning 48 seats – a rise from 40 in 2019

Read Next

Justin Timberlake expresses disappointment on cancelling show due to injury

WP2Social Auto Publish Powered By : XYZScripts.com