Mehbooba wins Anantnag bypoll

Azhar Qadri
Tribune News Service
Anantnag, June 25

Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday won the bypoll to Anantnag constituency, securing a victory margin of around 12,000 votes.

Mehbooba, who contested the by-election on a PDP ticket, took lead in round one and maintained it till the end.

“She has secured a lead of 12,086 votes,” an official here said. Mehbooba secured 17,701 votes out of the total 28,453 polled.

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Congress candidate Hilal Shah, who finished second with 5,616 votes, staged a demonstration with other defeated candidates, who alleged that the results had been rigged.

This will be Mehbooba’s fourth term in the Assembly. The 57-year-old Mehbooba is among the eight candidates in the bypoll for Anantnag Assembly seat which was necessitated due to death of incumbent MLA and then chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on January 7 this year.

Interestingly, 356 votes had been marked the NOTA option.

Mehbooba was first elected to the Assembly in 1996 on a Congress ticket from Bijbehara constituency. She won in 2002 from Pahalgam and again in 2008 from Wachi seat in Shopian district.

With inputs from PTI