Major Setback For National Conference As Party Loses Jammu And Kashmir By-Elections

As soon as the news about the victory of PDP candidate, Aga Muntazir Mehdi, poured in, jubilant party workers burst fire crackers and readied garlands for former chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti, at the Srinagar office. When Mehooba, who is also the PDP president, arrived, the party office resonated with victory slogans. After meeting the greeting partymen, the PDP leader drove straight to central Kashmir’s Budgam, from where Aga Muntazir defeated the NC leader and former Minister, Aga Syed Mehmood.

The results were a major setback for the ruling party National Conference, which lost both the seats of Nagrota and Budgam on which the voting had taken place on November 11.

At the party office, Shakeel Ahmad Bhat, PDP’s ward president from Nawa Bazar, says they won the Budgam seat as the NC has failed to deliver on its electoral promises that it made to the people in the 2024 elections. “ We are happy, we are jubilant. NC did nothing. Before the elections, the party promised 200 units of free power to people, an increase in ration quota, but it has not kept its electoral promises,” says Shakeel.

The polls on the Budgam seat were held after Chief Minister Omar Abdullah resigned last year to retain the Ganderbal constituency from Kashmir, while the Nagrota seat had fallen vacant after the demise of BJP MLA Devender Singh Rana. Seventeen candidates, including NC’s Aga Mehmood, the PDP’s Aga Muntazir, the Awami Iteehad Party’s (AIP) Nazir Ahmad Khan, and independent candidates, Jibran Dar and Muntazir Mohi-ud-Din, were in the electoral fray on the Budgam seat. In the elections, Aga Muntazir got 21576 votes while Aga Mehmood received 17098, and Jibran bagged 7152 votes.

On the Nagrota seat, ten candidates, including BJP’s Devyani Rana, NC’s Shamim Begum, Harsh Dev Singh of the Panthers Party (India), and BJP rebel independent Anil Sharma, fought the elections. Devyani received 42350 votes, Harsh Dev 17703 votes, and Shamim got 10872 votes.

The run up to the elections saw NC’s own MP, Aga Ruhulla, refusing to campaign for the party candidate as he accused CM Omar for failing to fulfill his electoral pledges, including the restoration of Article 370.

Senior Congress leader, G N Monga, says Ruhulla’s differences with the NC played a major role in the party’s defeat, besides the failure to deliver on its political promises. “ The loss is not good news, but NC should have kept the electoral promises,” he says.

Tufail Bhat, PDP’s Zone President for Habba Kadal, who took part in the party’s victory celebration, says that if the NC knew that it couldn’t keep most of its promises as Jammu and Kashmir was a Union Territory, “then it shouldn’t have fooled the people.” “ Even if Aga Ruhulla had campaigned for the party, they would have still lost.”

Shakeel, however, says that the NC not only failed on the developmental front, but the party couldn’t even deliver on political promises like the restoration of statehood and Article 370.

Bilal Ahmad Naikoo, PDP worker from Kani Mazar, who was at the forefront celebrating the victory, says that before the elections, NC promised to remove the electricity meters which were installed during the Lieutenant Governor’s rule, but “now in government, it was saying that they were needed for uninterrupted power supply.” “ NC has failed on most of its campaign pledges, including its promise to provide employment to youth or regularise the services of daily wagers,” says Naikoo. “ Omar Abdullah got a big mandate, but he has failed to keep most promises.”

Before the polls, differences were also witnessed between NC and its alliance partner in the coalition government, Congress, which accused the party of announcing the candidates on the four Rajya Sabha seat last month without consulting them. Party leaders said that the NC didn’t approach Congress for a joint campaign in favour of their candidates in the by-elections.

However, Tufail says that Congress “didn’t have votes in Budgam, their support won’t have made a difference.”

Numan Feroze, 28, a PDP worker from the Zaldagar area of Sringar, says that the National Conference has not been able to fulfill key electoral promises like the rationalisation of reservations during the recruitments in government services. “ The party lied to people; that is the reason they lost the elections,” says Feroze.

Before the elections, the Nagrota assembly constituency had also witnessed a rebellion within the BJP with the party’s former leader, Anil Sharma, contesting as an independent candidate after he was denied the ticket. Before he joined the poll fray, Anil was in charge of BJP’s Panchayati Raj Cell and the Border Cell. But this didn’t have any impact on Devyani’s winning prospectus, as Anil only bagged 842 votes. Monga, however, says that the BJP managed to win the elections “ by buying votes.”