JAMMU: In 43 assembly segments of Jammu region, 68.53 per cent candidates, including almost all from PDP and BSP, had their deposits forfeited. These candidates failed to receive at least one-sixth of the total valid votes and lost their deposit.
J&K Apni Party, Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP), Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), several candidates from both sides of the National Panther Party, eight Congress candidates and one candidate from the Bharatiya Janata Party. The constituency deposit was also confiscated. The wise results announced by the Election Commission said:
Incidentally, out of a total of 356 candidates contesting from 43 Assembly seats in Jammu region, 164 votes were obtained, which is less than the number of votes obtained by none of the above candidates (NOTA). Voters have the option of rejecting all candidates within.
The National Conference (NC)-Congress alliance, including the CPI(M), won 49 seats in the first parliamentary elections after the abrogation of Article 370, while regional parties won a landslide victory with a total of 42 seats.
The Congress won one seat in Jammu and five seats in Kashmir while the NC tally included seven seats in Jammu region. CPI(M) won one seat in Kashmir.
The BJP achieved its best ever performance by winning 29 seats in the Jammu region, making it the second largest party after the NC. Analysis of 43 results from Jammu region revealed that out of 356 candidates who participated in the election campaign, 244 had their deposits forfeited. Who are the other 30 candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), apart from Kamal Hussain from Tanamandi and Imtiaz Ahmed Shan from Banihal City, who managed to save their deposit by securing 21,986 and 27,018 votes respectively. One person was unable to secure a deposit. Most of them receive fewer votes than NOTA.
The Tanamandi seat was won by North Carolina rebel candidate Muzaffar Iqbal Khan, defeating his closest rival Mohd Iqbal Malik of the Bharatiya Janata Party by a margin of 6,179 votes. Mr Khan received 32,645 votes and Mr Malik 26,466 votes, but Mr Hussain, a former PDP MLA, finished in a distant third place.
Similarly, the Banihal seat was won by North Carolina’s Sajjad Shaheen with 27,018 votes, defeating former state Congress president and ex-minister Vikhar Rasool Wani by a margin of 6,110 votes. Shan finished third, while Bharatiya Janata Party’s Mohd Saleem Bhat and four others lost their deposits.
Some of the prominent PDP figures who lost their security deposits included former MLC Firdous Ahmad Tak, who secured only 997 votes out of the total 60,524 votes cast in Kishtwar constituency. Shagun Parihar, the only female face of the BJP, defeated former North Carolina minister Sajjad Kitchroo by more than 500 votes against Kishtwar. Parihar, whose father and uncle were killed by terrorists in November 2018, received 29,053 votes.
The BSP fielded over 20 candidates across the Jammu region, but apart from Kathua candidate Sandeep Majyotra, none of them made an impact on the ground. Although Majyotra secured 33,827 votes, he lost to BJP’s Bharat Bhushan by a margin of 12,117 votes and finished second in the constituency.
A majority of BSP leaders also voted less than NOTA.
Overall, NOTA polled more votes than 164 candidates in 43 constituencies in Jammu region.
The DPAP, which will face its first parliamentary elections in September 2022 after being formed by former Prime Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, also failed to attract voters. The party’s senior leader and former minister Abdul Majid Wani finished fourth from Doda with just 10,027 votes, but fell far short of the maximum requirement to save deposit.
The seat was won by Mehraj Malik, district development councilor of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), who opened an account in the J&K Assembly for the first time. Malik secured 23,228 votes, defeating the BJP’s Ganjay Singh by a margin of 4,538 votes. North Carolina leader and former minister Khalid Najib Suharwardi came in third, narrowly saving his deposit with 13,334 votes.
Several other AAP and DPAP candidates not only lost their deposit but also received fewer votes than NOTA.
Former minister and J&K Apni Party leader Manjit Singh secured 13,161 votes and came third in the Vijaypur constituency, ultimately managing to save his deposit, but former BJP minister Chander Prakash Ganga He came in third place with 32,859 votes against Rajesh Kumar Palgotra of North Carolina with 13,819 votes.
However, Mr Singh’s other colleagues were not as lucky to save their deposits and were among the 164 candidates surveyed by NOTA who received fewer votes.
The majority of the 123 independent members failed to make a mark and had their deposits confiscated. However, North Carolina rebel candidates Chaudhary Mohammad Akram (Soorankot), Payale Lal Sharma (Inderwal), Rameshwar Singh (Bani) and Congress rebel candidate Satish Sharma (Champhu) won the seat, defeating his rival.
