Srinagar, May 16
It was the day of two lead opposition parties in Jammu and Kashmir, where the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) swept all three seats in the Valley while the BJP registered its victory in the rest of the three parliamentary constituencies.

The ruling coalition, National Conference (NC) and Congress, had decided to contest three seats each and lost all six of them.

The NC had opted for the three seats of the Kashmir valley and the Congress got the Jammu, Udhampur and Ladakh constituencies. The PDP had contested on five seats — three in the Valley and two in Jammu.

The coalition was left wondering as to what were the reasons for its defeat.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and his party colleagues went into a huddle, pondering over what went wrong and when, even though the common perception is that the governance style of the coalition partners since January 5, 2009, was responsible for the unprecedented rout of the National Conference in the Valley and the Congress in the rest of the state.

Both PDP and BJP won three seats each in Jammu and Kashmir — a never before phenomenon in the electoral history of the state, which has seen many elections, throwing results on the expected lines.

The PDP got 7,32,267 votes in five of the six parliamentary constituencies. It did not contest on the Ladakh constituency. In the Valley alone, where it was the PDP versus the NC, the party got 5,33,252 votes.

The NC had to remain contended with 3,96,433 on the three seats of the Valley.

The PDP also made its presence felt on the two seats in Jammu where it got 1,99,015 votes — 168,554 in Jammu and 30,461 in Udhampur.

There were many firsts in this election: the PDP won all three seats in the Valley — Mehbooba Mufti defeated her NC rival Mehboob Beg in Anantnag, Tariq Hamid Karra uprooted NC president Farooq Abdullah in Srinagar, Muzaffar Hussain Beigh defeated Sharifuddin Shariq of the NC from north Kashmir’s Baramulla constituency and Azad lost his maiden bid to enter the Lok Sabha from his home state.

Farooq lost for the first time in his political career, spanning over three and a half decades, BJP won in Ladakh for the first time and the BJP polled the highest number of votes 11,38,475 from the three constituencies it contested — Jammu (Jugal Kishore Sharma 6,19,995 votes), Udhampur (Jitendra Singh 4,87,369 votes) and Ladakh (Thupstan Cheewang 31,111 votes).

The Congress got only 8,13,510 votes, with Ghulam Nabi Azad getting 4,26,393 from Udhampur, Madan Lal getting 3,62,715 from Jammu and T Samphel getting 24,402 from Ladakh.

Srinagar, May 16
Union Minister and National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah faced the first-ever defeat in elections as he lost his home constituency of Srinagar to Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Tariq Hameed Karra in the Lok Sabha polls by a margin of over 41,183 votes today.

Farooq Abdullah, candidate of the ruling National Conference-Congress coalition, was pitted against Tariq Hameed Karra (main contender) of the PDP, and 12 others, including the candidates of the BJP, Aam Admi Party (AAP), JK National Panthers Party, Akhil Bhartiya Muslim League and Independents. An Independent, Aga Syed Mohsin, trailed at number three by getting 16,047 votes.

In his success, Tariq Hameed Karra "defeated" Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Speaker of the state Legislative Assembly Mubarak Gul and two senior ministers in their respective Assembly segments of Ganderbal, Eidgah, Chrar-e-Sharief and Kangan.

In the Ganderbal constituency, Karra polled 13,320 votes, while the NC 10,307 and got a lead of 2,913 votes. In the Eidgah segment of Srinagar district, represented by the Speaker, Karra polled 3,531 votes, while Farooq Abdullah 2,334 and got a lead of 1,197 votes.

In the Chrar-e-Sharief Assembly constituency, represented by Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather, the PDP candidate polled 26,870 votes, while Farooq 23,785 and got a lead of 3,085 votes. The Chrar-e-Sharief constituency has registered highest number of polling among all the Assembly segments.

Tariq Hameed Karra polled 21,124 votes, while the NC candidate 17,517 in the Kangan constituency, represented by Forest Minister Mian Altaf, and got a lead of 3,607 votes.

However, the NC maintained a lead in the Khanyar constituency in downtown Srinagar, represented by the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Ali Mohammad Sagar. The PDP got 1,595 votes, while the NC 3,245.

In numbers

Total votes polled: 3,09,730

Tariq Hameed Karra: 1,57,546

Farooq Abdullah: 1,15,363

Aga Syed Mohsin (Ind): 16,047

AAP: 3,249

NOTA: 4,958

Anantnag, May 16
The fort that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had lost in 2009 has been reclaimed in 2014 and will have a huge impact on the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.

PDP president Mehbooba Mufti did not only defeat her nearest rival and sitting Member Parliament Mehboob Beg of the National Conference (NC) by a margin of 65,000 votes from the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat, but on her way to victory, she also defeated three Cabinet ministers.

Such was the rout for the ruling coalition candidate that NC’s Beg did not win a single Assembly segment of the total 16 in the entire constituency.

A total of 12 candidates were contesting from the Anantnag parliamentary constituency, spread over Kulgam, Shopian, Anantnag and Pulwama districts.

The constituency, which went to the polls on April 24, had recorded a voter turnout of 28 per cent.

Mehbooba, 55, who spearheaded her party’s poll campaign, secured 2,00,429 votes against Beg who got 1,35,012 votes.

Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) candidate Tanweer Khan got 7,340 votes.

The biggest setback for the ruling coalition candidate in south Kashmir was losing from the Noorabad Assembly segment in Kulgam district, from where Sakina Itoo, minister in the Omar Abdullah’s Cabinet, had emerged as the lone successful candidate of the NC in entire south Kashmir in the 2008 Assembly polls.

In Noorabad, Mehbooba got 24,753 votes and her rival NC candidate secured 24,650 votes.

The Noorabad Assembly segment had recorded a turnout of 72 per cent —the highest in the Anantnag constituency.

Similarly, Mehbooba maintained the lead in the two Assembly segments of Dooru and Kokernag, represented by Congress ministers Ghulam Ahmed Mir and Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed, respectively.

In Dooru, Mir’s home constituency, who headed the poll campaign for the coalition candidate, Beg, the PDP maintained the lead by nearly 4,000 votes.

In the Kokernag Assembly segment, represented by Peerzada Sayeed, Mehbooba maintained the lead by over 9,000 votes.

Mehbooba’s victory in the Congress bastion is surely going to have an impact on the upcoming Assembly elections scheduled later this year.

In 2009, Beg had defeated Peer Muhammad Hussain of the PDP by nearly 5,000 votes.

“This is a moment of glory for our party which has the distinction of being the youngest political organisation of the state,” Mehbooba said after her victory.

The counting began for the Anantnag seat at Degree College, Khanabal in Anantnag, amid tight security around 8.15 am.

The first votes to be counted were the postal ballot. Since the first round of counting, the PDP maintained the lead till the 13th round.

Anantnag seat

Total votes polled: 3,74,601

Mehbooba Mufti (PDP): 2,00,429

Mehboob Beg (NC): 1,35,012

Tanweer Khan (AIP): 7,340

Tanveer Dar (AAP): 3,252

Mushtaq Ahmad Malik (BJP): 4,720

NOTA: 5,936.

Srinagar, May 16
The Opposition in Jammu and Kashmir put up a stunning performance by pushing out the ruling alliance candidates in all the six parliamentary constituencies of the state, raising questions over the continuation of the coalition government of the National Conference and the Congress, which has been ruling the state for the past five and a half years.

As indications have surfaced amidst gloom in the alliance camp that the first step in this direction will be snapping of the alliance before or on the eve of the Assembly elections in the state scheduled to be held by the year-end, but the results of the parliamentary polls have thrown open a possibility of snapping of the alliance any time now.

In equal measure, the two alliance partners have reasons to curse each other because the two parties worked against each other’s candidates, despite having straightened their arms upwards and holding the hands as a ? sign of unity.

This may appear to be jumping the gun, but the way the Congress has been routed in the Jammu region, including architect of the Congress during the militancy era Union Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, the cry for the alliance to go may become louder in the days to come.

Similar sentiments are being voiced by the National Conference that has lost all the three seats held by it in Kashmir valley to its arch rival Peoples Democratic Party.

National Conference president and Union Minister Farooq Abdullah lost to PDP’s Tariq Hamid Karra, former Finance Minister.

Karra has emerged as a giant killer as he has defeated Farooq Abdullah, who had never lost elections ever before he entered the electoral politics in 1980.

Former Deputy Chief Minister and PDP candidate from Baramullah Muzaffar Hussain Beigh has won handsomely defeating his NC rival Sharifuddin Shariq.

The PDP in the eyes of the commoners has emerged as a party that can be trusted for representing Kashmir at the Centre and can easily be trusted for running the state as well. Never before the PDP had got three parliamentary seats with it. In 2004, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti was the only leader of the party elected to the Lok Sabha.

With Mehbooba declaring that at the national level, her party would have no alliance is aimed at proving the NC wrong that had unleashed a campaign against the party that the vote for the PDP is vote for the BJP, a party that still doesn’t click with the Kashmiris, whereas leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee do.

That there would be implications of these polls on the forthcoming Assembly polls was conceded even by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who was shocked?over what he called the one-sided comprehensive results. During the campaign in the run up to polls, he had been declaring that the alliance would win all the six seats in the state — Leh, Ladakh, Anantnag, Srinagar, Baramullah , Udhampur-Doda, and Jammu. But the results mirrored altogether an opposite picture in which the alliance was edged out of the frame, whereas the PDP and the BJP entered the picture with a bang.

While in Kashmir valley, the PDP got votes on its own and the results are on its side to show that it may repeat the same performance in the Assembly polls, it is preparing to call for the resignation of Omar Abdullah and fresh elections in the state. But, the BJP in the Jammu region cannot hope to repeat this performance where the less-known candidates Jugal Kishore Sharma and Jitendra Singh have become overnight heroes, courtesy BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. People voted for lotus symbol because of Modi, not because of its candidates — it is an undeniable fact.

Srinagar, May 16
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah appeared shocked on Friday as he owned the responsibility for an unprecedented rout of his party in the parliamentary elections and termed it a “rude awakening” for those who dismissed the Modi-factor. Omar, the working president of state’s ruling National Conference and star campaigner for the party, said he accepted the verdict with “all humility”.

“I knew we had a difficult challenge on our hands…I did not expect this comprehensive one-sided result in the state today,” Omar said. “This is my defeat more than anybody else’s. I won’t sugar coat that,” he said. Omar said the parliamentary poll results would have a “far reaching implication” for his party, for the state and for the country. 

Kathua, May 16
The "lucky mascot" of the Congress, Ghulam Nabi Azad, today lost his maiden Lok Sabha election from Jammu and Kashmir by a margin of 60,976 votes.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate, Jitendra Singh, defeated Azad in a tough battle on the Udhampur-Doda Lok Sabha seat, which saw a huge turnout of voters on April 17 polling.

As the counting of votes began in Government Degree College, Kathua, this morning, Azad, not for a single time looked like winning. Since the first round of counting of votes, the BJP candidate took a lead, which Azad couldn’t overcome. The counting of votes for this constituency took 19 rounds and Returning Officer Jatindra Kumar Singh announced Jitendra Singh of the BJP winner.

The Udhampur-Doda seat went to the polls on April 17 and 10,41,130 votes were polled across the constituency, which is spread over six mountainous districts and constitute 17 Assembly segments.

Around 14.68 lakh voters were eligible for exercising their franchise and more than 70 per cent voting was witnessed.

The BJP candidate managed to get 4,87,369 votes, whereas the Congress candidate was able to get 4,26,393 votes. The BJP candidate won by a margin of 60,976 votes.

To counter the Modi wave in the constituency, the Congress had fielded its "lucky mascot" and tallest figure from the state Ghulam Nabi Azad, but even this couldn’t prove good for the party as the BJP managed to sway the things in its favour and defeated the Congress stalwart on his home turf.

During the counting of votes, Azad reached the centre, but when the BJP started leading after the fifth round, he left the venue and never returned. The BJP candidate, Jitendra Singh, however, didn’t leave the centre at all. After his win, Jitendra Singh was taken out in a procession and his supporters raised "Har har Modi ghar ghar Modi" slogan.

There are many factors responsible for Azad’s defeat and one of the major factors is that Congress leaders at the grass-roots level in the constituency were not able to get votes for the party candidate. Azad, being a native of Doda district, was expected to get majority of votes from four districts — Doda, Kishtwar, Ramban and Reasi — but due to the polarisation, Azad and his party weren’t able to get as many Hindu votes from these areas, which could have made him win.

Apart from that, Azad was hopeful of getting votes from Billawar, Bani and Basholi in Kathua district and Chenani and Ramnagar in Udhampur district, but when the electronic voting machines of these areas opened, it brought only disappointment for the Congress. From the BJP bastion of Hiranagar, where Narendra Modi did his first "Bharat Vijay" rally on March 26, Azad managed to get more than 16,000 votes.

Polarisation to blame?

There are many factors responsible for Azad’s defeat and one of the major factors is that Congress leaders at the grass-roots level in the constituency were not able to get votes for the party candidate. Azad, being a native of Doda district, was expected to get the majority of votes from four districts — Doda, Kishtwar, Ramban and Reasi — but due to polarisation, Azad and his party weren’t able to get as many Hindu votes from these areas, which could have made him win.

Jammu, May 16
Saffron wave has engulfed the Jammu region as the BJP wrested the prestigious Jammu-Poonch Lok Sabha seat by a record margin of 2,57,280 votes from the Congress, which is part of the National Conference-led coalition regime in the state.

BJP candidate from the seat Jugal Kishore Sharma secured 6, 19,995 votes while his nearest rival, Madan Lal Sharma of the Congress, got 3,62,715 votes. PDP candidate Yash Pal Sharma, who got the third place, secured 1,68,554 votes.

It is for the first time in the political history of the state that the BJP has won a Lok Sabha seat with such a huge margin.

In 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress had got 3,82,092 votes, while the BJP had secured only 2,60,568 votes. This time the BJP has secured 3,59,427 more votes as compared to the last Lok Sabha elections.

Out of total 20 Assembly segments of this Lok Sabha seat, the BJP got a huge majority in 15 segments mostly comprising plains of Jammu and Samba districts. The party also managed to get lead in two Assembly segments--namely Kalakote and Nowshere of Rajouri district.

The Congress, which had won this seat twice in 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabha elections, got lead only in three seats, while the PDP got lead in only two segments. The Congress has been completely washed out in the Hindu dominated districts of Samba and Jammu, which consisted 13 out of total 20 segments of this Parliamentary seat.

The Congress candidate even failed to get lead at his native place Akhnoor, which consisted of two Assembly segments.

Earlier, the BJP had won this Lok Sabha segment in 1998. The party had again won this seat in 1999 Lok Sabha elections. But, in two successive elections of 2004 and 2009, the Congress had maintained its dominance on the segment. 

Jammu, May 16
In a nail-biting contest, the country’s area-wise largest parliamentary segment, Ladakh, today recorded one of the country’s lowest victory margins in the Lok Sabha elections with the BJP winning the seat by a margin of just 36 votes.

BJP candidate Thupstan Chhewang won from Ladakh Parliamentary constituency with a narrow margin of 36 votes from his nearest rival Ghulam Raza, a congress rebel, who was fighting the elections as an Independent.

This is for the first time in the history of Jammu and Kashmir that the BJP has won the Ladakh parliamentary seat. The victory of the BJP on the seat was attributed to strong ideological differences between Buddhists and Shia Muslims in the Ladakh region, Modi wave and deep factionalism within the Congress.

Only four candidates were in the fray from the Ladakh seat. Other contesting candidates were Tsering Samphel of the Congress and Aga Syed Kazim Sabri, an Independent candidate, who was supported by religious body Islamiya School Kargil and the ruling National Conference. 

Srinagar, May 16
The BJP today bagged a major chunk of the migrant votes and all the postal ballots polled for the north Kashmir seat of Baramulla, even as the rest of India was swept by a saffron wave.

As the counting process began at Government Degree College Baramulla, the first vote that was counted was the postal ballot.

The authorities, who counted postal votes, said a total of 60 ballots were received by post for the Baramulla seat.

Upon scrutiny, 47 votes were declared not valid and rejected for lack of proper declaration.

After counting the remaining 13 valid postal ballots, the authorities declared that all votes were in favour of BJP’s Ghulam Mohammad Mir.

Out of the total of 6,558 votes bagged by the BJP in north Kashmir, 1,867 were cast by Kashmiri Pandits living in Udhampur and Jammu.

A total of 3,147 migrant votes were polled for the Baramulla seat, of which the PDP bagged 694, the NC 320 and the People’s Conference 109 votes.

Post-PDP formation in 1999, it is for the first time the party has won all three Lok Sabha seats in Kashmir. The party, founded by the former Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, fielded three of its best known faces — Mehbooba Mufti from Anantnag, Muzzaffar Hussain Beigh from Baramulla and Tariq Hameed Karra from Srinagar — for the three parliamentary seats in the Valley. Here's their brief profiles:

mehbooba mufti, 55 
She enters Parliament for the second time. She was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 2004. Daughter of PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Mehbooba dethroned National Conference in 2002 in the Assembly polls. Born in Bijbehara, Anantnag, she is the party chief and represents Wachi constituency, Shopian, in the Assembly. A law graduate from Kashmir University, Mehbooba started out in 1996 when she was first elected to the Assembly from Bijbehara on the Congress ticket. Mehbooba became the CLP leader. Mehbooba quit the Congress and the Assembly. She became the PDP’s first vice-president in 1999.

muzzaffar h beig, 70
He is entering the Parliament for the first time. In the past Beigh had unsuccessfully contested the LS elections in 1979, 1984 and 1998. A reputed SC lawyer and one of the founding members of the PDP, Beigh remained the Advocate General of J&K from 1985 to 1987. He was born in Wahidia village in Baramulla district. Beigh set off his political journey after joining Abdul Gani Lone-led People’s Conference. However, in 1999 Beigh joined the PDP and in 2002 he won the Assembly polls from Baramulla constituency. He was the Minister for Finance, Law and Parliamentary Affairs and also held the charge of Deputy Chief Minister.

tariq hameed karra, 59 
Known as the face of the PDP in Srinagar, Karra was elected to the Legislative Assembly from Batamalloo in October 2004. Born in 1955 at Batamalloo, Karra did his LLB from Kashmir University in 1979 and got involved in politics immediately after the completion of his studies. He, however, joined active politics in 1999 as a founder member of the PDP. He made his maiden entry into the state Cabinet as the Minister for Housing and Urban Development and Forests in November 2005. He also headed the vital Finance, Planning and Development and Law and Parliamentary Affairs departments under Ghulam Nabi Azad-headed Cabinet. 

Kathua, May 16
Kathua celebrated the victory of BJP candidate Dr Jitendra Singh with zeal and enthusiasm today. The district looked in a festive mood.

Jitendra Singh defeated Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad with about 61,000 votes in the Doda-Udhampur constituency.

The day was full of suspense and curiosity as the BJP was leading with only 8,638 votes till the sixth round.

At 2:30 pm, returning officer of the constituency Jitender Kumar Singh announced that Jitendra Singh had won by 60,976 votes. Hundreds of BJP supporters waited outside Government Degree College, Kathua, where counting took place for the Udhampur-Doda parliamentary constituency.

People given a warm welcome to Jitendra Singh and garlanded him. They distributed sweets and burst crackers to celebrate his win. “This is a proud moment for our state that we have contributed to Modi’s government, which is going to bring good days in the country,” said Subash Sharma, a BJP supporter.

“We are hopeful of more jobs and development work in the state in the tenure of the new government,” Sharma said.

The BJP candidate came out of the counting centre and took out a procession in Kathua town to thank the people of his constituency.

“Defeating a Union Health Minister and former Chief Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, was not so easy. Dr Jitendra Singh has made history,” said Arun Sharma, a BJP supporter at Kathua.

The counting was done in 19 rounds, in which BJP’s margin increased gradually. Meanwhile, after the sixth round of counting, the electronic voting machine (EVM) of the Chenani Assembly constituency developed some technical snag, which was sorted out after more than an hour. “There was a small technical issue with the EVM, but it was later sorted out and the counting went on smoothly and peacefully,” said Rajeev Arun Ikka, election observer.

Congress candidate Ghulam Nabi Azad also visited the counting centre in the morning, but after receiving negative response after the sixth round, he did not turn up at the centre again.

Srinagar, May 16
As many as 31, 527 voters spread across five out of the total of six parliamentary constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir pressed for none of the above option (NOTA).

The option attracted more voters than some of the contestants in the Srinagar, Baramulla and Udhampaur constituencies with a respective vote share of 4,958, 4,568 and 10,477. In the Anantnag segment 5,936 opted for NOTA, while in the Jammu constituency 4,381 preferred the option.

In the Ladakh Lok Sabha segment 1,207 voters pressed the NOTA button. The NOTA users were mostly from the remote areas, who exercised their right to reject all the contesting parties and candidates unequivocally.

In the Srinagar constituency, even the BJP (2,743) and the Aam Aadmi Party (3,249) had lesser voter share than NOTA (4,958).

Many voters, especially the first timers, in the Valley had expressed their desire to try NOTA this time.

“I was not interested in the ideologies of any contesting political parties, but at the same time wanted to exercise my right to vote so I opted for NOTA,” said Muhammad Ayub, a first time voter from Srinagar. Given that NOTA was introduced in the parliamentary polls for the first time, such a trend in the rural areas of various constituencies was surprising and seems to be a result of lack of awareness or case of listless voters, said Imtiyaz Khan, a research scholar at Kashmir University. 

Srinagar, May 16
As Jammu and Kashmir witnessed a turnaround in the Lok Sabha polls, Friday sermons in Kashmir’s mosques reverberated with bursting of crackers and slogans outside the counting centres, public parks, the civil secretariat offices and colleges.

Even those who stayed away from voting in the Valley were glued to their radio and television sets since the dawn as trends indicated a rout for the National Conference-Congress alliance.

A group of young boys, wearing saffron caps celebrated Modi’s convincing victory near the Sher-e-Kashmir Park in the commercial hub of Lal Chowk here.

With the BJP even impressing with its vote share in the Srinagar, Baramulla and Anantnag parliamentary constituencies, party workers gathered outside the counting centre at the capital city here chanting ‘har har Modi’ slogans .

They were later chased away by the police personnel stationed around the Sher-i- Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC), where counting was being held. “It is going to be the BJP all the way from now. We will definitely celebrate in days to come. All the BJP workers from various parliamentary constituencies will gather in the Lal Chowk tomorrow to celebrate the emphatic victory of Modiji,” a group of BJP workers told The Tribune.

Minutes later, the workers of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) teased their BJP counterparts raising “abki baar Mufti sarkar” slogans outside the counting centre.

At PDP headquarters on Gupkar road here, party president Mehbooba Mufti was garlanded and made to cut the victory cake as the news of the PDP making a clean sweep in the Valley trickled in. A youth win representative of the party said not just the Lok Sabha polls, the PDP was going to defeat the NC in forthcoming Assembly elections too.

“We are very hopeful of similar performance in the Assembly elections. The winds of change have started to blow in the Valley and that too in right direction,” the PDP worker said.

Meanwhile, for common masses it was largely the anti incumbency factor coupled with mis-governance of the NC-Congress coalition which led to the ouster of both the parties in the elections.

“Both NC and Congress played development card in the last parliamentary and Assembly polls, but failed to fulfil their promises. People are tired of corruption, economic backwardness, and wanted to see a change. This verdict is a proof of that,” said Murassah Shamshad, a student at Government Medical College, Srinagar.