Lotus Blooms In Kashmir But Alliance Leads In DDC Polls

The BJP opened its account in Kashmir Valley after winning three District Development Council (DDC) seats on Tuesday. The party is behind the People’s Alliance in the overall tally but winning three seats in the Valley is significant.

The saffron party won one seat each from Srinagar, Bandipora, and Pulwama districts, according to latest data issued by election authorities.

Aijaz Mir, National vice-president of BJP youth wing, won from Balhama constituency in Srinagar. The BJP also won from south Kashmir’s Kakpora constituency in Pulwama and Tulail in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district. In Pulwama, Peoples Alliance worked at cross purposes with Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and National Conference (NC) fielding their own candidates helping Minha Latif of the BJP to win the seat.

Counting for the DDC polls is under way in Jammu and Kashmir where Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration --- a loose alliance of regional political parties --- is leading in 88 seats followed by BJP at 44.

“We fought against PAGD candidate and BJP emerged victorious here (Balhama seat in Srinagar). I congratulate people of Jammu & Kashmir and security forces,” Mir said.

“We have fought against the Gang and want to show them that people are inclined more towards @narendramodi ji & @BJP4India than #PAGD in #Kashmir. The people of valley will definitely give seats to @BJP4India owing the popularity of PM in Kashmir. Let all pray for our win,” Mir tweeted earlier in the day.

“Save my Tweet and Revert me after 11 am. Lotus is going to bloom in #Kashmir. Let kashmir move away from communal politics by other parties,” he tweeted.

Ahead of counting, authorities in Kashmir on Sunday detained several PDP and second rung NC leaders, including Naeem Akhtar, Sartaj Madni, Peer Mansoor and Hilal Ahmad Lone. Authorities gave no reason for their detention.

BJP national spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain tweeted, “The DDC elections in J&K have been fought on the plank of development @BJP4JnK will sweep the elections in Jammu & in the Valley our performance will be much better than previous elections. Karyakartas have worked hard to build a strong cadre.”

The returning officers in District Srinagar have declared the results of District Development Council elections in all the 14 constituencies and handed over election certificates to winning candidates. Also, results of four Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) ward constituencies were declared earlier.

Srinagar deputy commissioner Dr Shahid Choudhary said results of all 14 DDC constituencies have been declared. According to the final results, Independents have been declared winners in 7 constituencies, including Srinagar-I, Qamarwari-I, Qamarwari-II, Harwan-I, II, IV and VI while Apni Party candidates were declared winners from Harwan-V, Khanmoh-I and Srinagar-III. Four political parties won one seat each, the BJP won from Khanmoh -II, PDP from Khanmoh-III, NC from Harwan -III and JKPM from Srinagar -II.

The results will decide the fate of 4,181 candidates, including 450 women, who contested in 280 DDC seats in Jammu and Kashmir.

Polling took place across eight phases between November 28 and December 19. Nearly 51 per cent of the 57 lakh eligible voters exercised their franchise in the elections, which were largely peaceful. These were the first elections to the third tier of the panchayati raj system held in Jammu and Kashmir. These were also the first mass polls that happened after provisions of Article 370 were abrogated and Jammu and Kashmir was made a Union Territory in August 2019.

 Leads/ Win 210/280

PAGD 88 (Lead 84, Won 4) BJP 44 (Lead -43 Won 1 ) INC 21 (Lead 20, Won 1) JKAP 7 (Lead 6, Won 1) OTHERS 50 (Lead 43, Won 7)