Hat-trick for BJP's two Jammu MPs, Ladakh goes against BJP
Dr Jitendra Singh BJP: 5,71,076 votes
Jugal Kishore BJP: 6,87,588 votes
Haji Haneefa Jan (Independent): 65259 votes
Aga Syed Ruhullah NC: 3, 56,866 votes
Mian Altaf Ahmad NC: 5,21,836 votes
Sheikh Rasheed (Independent): 472481 votes
Jammu, June 4: Bharatiya Janata Party was declared winner of both parliamentary seats in Jammu province, while the authorities declared National Conference candidate Aga Rahullah winner from the Srinagar parliamentary seat.
While Jammu has elected Jugal Kishore Sharma for the third consecutive term as Member Parliament (MP), Udhampur gave yet another chance to the Union Minister of State Dr. Jitendra Singh to represent them in Lok Sabha with lower margin.
The saffron wave has swept Hindu-dominated Jammu region despite the fact that anti-incumbency was in place and both the BJP candidates had to reach from pillar to post to convince people to vote in their favour.
As per the data available with election commission of India website, Jugal Kishore Sharma won the Jammu Lok Sabha seat with a margin of 135498 votes as he got a total of 687588 votes. His nearest and only strong competitor, Congress party's stalwart Raman Bhalla was able to get 552090 votes. On Udhampur seat, Dr. Jitendra Singh defeated his arch rival and Congress candidate Choudhary Lal Singh with a margin of 124373 votes. The union MoS in PMO got a total of 571076 votes whereas Congress candidates got 446703 votes.
Though the official results for Barmullha and Anantnag- Rajouri were not declared late evening, it was clear from the last round of counting that Engineer Rashid was winning the Barmullha seat and the NC's Mian Altaf Anantnag- Rajouri seat respectively.
Interestingly two former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti suffered defeats from two Lok Sabha constituencies of Kashmir.
Kashmir Valley has three Lok Sabha constituencies.
From Srinagar Parliamentary Constituency, Aga Syed Ruhulla Mehdi emerged victorious by a huge margin of 1.80 lakh votes.
According to the details available with the KNO news agency, Aga Ruhullah has secured 356866 and defeated his rival from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with a margin of 188416 votes, who bagged 168450 votes. Apni Party candidate, Muhammad Ashraf Mir however secured only 65954 votes.
However, the NC candidate from Anantnag-Rajouri seat, Mian Altaf Ahmad Larvi bagged 521836 votes and defeated his close rival and PDP chief, who is also a former chief minister of erstwhile J&K state, Mehbooba Mufti with a margin of 281794 votes.
Mehbooba secured only 2,40,042 votes, followed by Apni Party's Zafar Iqbal Khan Manhas, who bagged 142195 votes only.
The Baramulla Parliamentary Constituency where the close contest was expected between former chief minister Omar Abdullah and former minister and Peoples Conference (PC) leader Sajad Gani Lone however witnessed a different scene as the independent candidate and a jailed leader Er Rasheed emerged victorious from the seat.
Er Rasheed is a former two-time MLA from Langate in North Kashmir. He has been in Tihar Jail for five years facing terror funding charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). He leads the Awami Ittehad Party, but he chose to contest as an independent candidate. He bagged 472481 votes and defeated his close rival Omar Abdullah by a margin of 204142 votes, who secured a total of 268339 votes while Sajad Lone got only 173239 votes. The credit for Er Rasheed's victory is being attributed to the “vigorous and emotional election campaign” run by his two sons Abrar Rasheed and Asrar Rasheed across the North Kashmir LS seat. The siblings emerged as crowd pullers and attracted a large number of youth to their rallies where they sought support and votes for their jailed father, which ultimately bore the fruit.
The lone Lok Sabha seat in Ladakh went to independent candidate Haji Hanifa, a Kargil resident who won with a margin of over 27,000 votes. In Ladakh, the BJP had replaced its incumbent MP Jamyang Tsering Namgyal with Tashi Gyalson.
