Cong draws a blank in Jammu

Amir Karim Tantray

Tribune News Service

Jammu, December 23

The Congress has been wiped out from Hindu-majority areas in the Jammu plains with the BJP making big gains in the region.

The BJP has given a huge dent to the Congress in the Chenab valley, the bastion of Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad. The Congress had won four seats in the region in the 2008 Assembly elections. Akhnoor, Chhamb, Gandhinagar and Chenani had elected Congress nominees.

The BJP had won 11 seats in the aftermath of the Amarnath land row. This time, Narendra Modi wave swept the Hindu-majority region. No Hindu candidate of the Congress in the Jammu region won this time around. The party won in Kashmir and Muslim-dominated areas of the Jammu region.

The Congress won three of the four seats in the Ladakh region as well. One Muslim and two Buddhist candidates were triumphant. The BJP made inroads in the Hindu-dominated Jammu plains since the Amarnath land row in 2008. The Congress had been putting up a secular face, but the Hindu-majority area rejected it.

Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand, PHE Minister Sham Lal Sharma and Housing Minister Raman Bhalla lost. Chand, Sharma and Bhalla were representing Chhamb, Akhnoor and Gandhinagar, respectively.