Blow to Omar Abdullah as NC loses Budgam bypoll to PDP; BJP retains Nagrota

The ruling National Conference in J&K on Friday suffered a setback after it lost the Budgam Assembly bypoll to the PDP over a year after the seat was won by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. On the other hand, the BJP was able to retain the Nagrota seat in the Jammu region.

The Budgam bypoll, represented by the NC since 1977, was necessitated after Omar, who had won from both the Budgam and Ganderbal seats in the last elections, chose to retain the latter.

In Nagrota, the bypoll was necessitated after BJP leader Devender Singh Rana, who had won the seat last year, passed away in October. PDP candidate Aga Syed Muntazir secured 21,576 votes and won the Budgam bypoll by a margin of over 4,400 votes. NC candidate Aga Syed Mahmood got 17,098 votes.

This time, the campaigning in Budgam took place in the absence of NC MP Syed Aga Ruhullah, who has represented the constituency thrice. Ruhullah has emerged as one of the party’s sharpest critics in recent times. The election results come as the NC government completes one year in office and has been facing criticism for “not fulfilling the poll promises”. Reacting to the outcome, Omar said the party would “analyse the results” and see if corrections were needed at the government or the organisation level. He said a working committee meeting of the party would also be called. Asked about Ruhullah’s comments after the poll result that “arrogance is the recipe for disaster”, Omar said, “To convey a message to me, what Ruhullah did and what he didn’t, that’s one thing. But politically, he committed suicide, because the person who has won from there, he will never let Ruhullah get up there again,” he said. Meanwhile, in Nagrota, BJP candidate Devyani Rana bagged 42,350 votes. Her father Devender Singh Rana had won the seat last year. The saffron party gave the ticket to Rana’s daughter, who contested the Assembly bypoll for the first time. On the other hand, NC candidate Shamim Begum stood third while J&K National Panthers Party (India) candidate Harsh Dev Singh was the runner-up.