BJP dominates Jammu region; no significant headway in Kashmir
Jammu, May 25 : The BJP has improved its performance in Jammu and Ladakh regions by securing a vote share of 46.4 percent in the just concluded Lok Sabha polls but failed to make any significant headway in the Kashmir Valley where polling percentage was low.
As per the official data released by the Election Commission (EC), the BJP managed to have 46.4 percent vote share mainly from Jammu, Udhampur and Ladakh Lok Sabha seats, thereby retaining the three constituencies.
The BJP’s vote share in the state in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls was 34.40 percent.
The vote share shows that the BJP is leading in 27 out of 41 Assembly seats in these three parliamentary constituencies.
In the Udhampur Lok Sabha seat, the BJP got a vote share of 61.38 percent in the 2019 polls compared to 46.76 percent in 2014, reflecting a significant improvement in the saffron party’s performance compared to the last general elections.
BJP leader and Union Minister Jitendra Singh won by 3.57 lakh votes defeating Congress’ Vikramaditya Singh, the son of Jammu and Kashmir’s last prince Karan Singh. Jitendra Singh polled 7,24,311 or 61.38 percent votes.
According to poll officials, it is the highest margin of victory for any successful candidate in Jammu and Kashmir till now.
BJP’s Jugal Kishore defeated Raman Bhalla of the Congress by 3,02,875 votes in the Jammu seat. Kishore polled 8,58,066 votes (58.02 percent). The party’s J T Namgyal won the Ladakh seat. He polled 42,914 votes (33.94 percent)
However, the BJP managed to get only 2.96 percent of votes in the Kashmir Valley which is slightly higher than 1.33 percent as compared to the 2014 polls.
The Kashmir Valley recorded a low turnout where only 8.76 percent of people polled their votes in Anantnag, 14.1 percent in Srinagar and 34.71 percent in Baramulla. The overall voting percentage in the state fell to 44.51 percent which is nearly five percent less than in 2014 when the figures stood at 49.52 percent.
The National Conference bagged all the three seats in the Valley, where polls were marred by boycott calls from the separatists and militant groups. The party was contesting only three seats from Valley and left other three for its alliance partner Congress.
The Congress, which contested five seats in Jammu and Kashmir and lost all, polled 1,011,527 votes taking 28.5 percent share of total votes polled, statistics said.
The Congress has increased its vote share by 5 percent but failed to convert it into seats.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress got 22.90 percent vote share but failed to get any seat. In the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress bagged two seats with 19.11 percent vote share.
The NC polled 2,80,356 votes (7.89 percent vote share) out of the total votes polled, it said. The party won in three seats of Srinagar, Anantnag and Baramulla.
For the NC, Farooq Abdullah won Srinagar seat and got 1,06,750 votes, which is 51 percent of the votes polled.
In North Kashmir’s Baramulla constituency, NC candidate Mohammad Akbar Lone, who won the seat, polled 1,33,426 votes, which is 29.9 percent of votes polled.
NC candidate Hasnain Masoodi, who won Anantnag seat, got 40,180 votes or 32 percent of the votes polled.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) vote share dipped from 20.50 percent in 2014, when it bagged three seats, to just 2.4 percent (84,054 votes). It lost all three seats.
