Ruling NC candidate among 23 lose deposit in J&K bypolls

The ruling National Conference (NC) candidate from the Nagrota assembly segment was among 23 candidates who forfeited their deposits in the bypolls to the two assembly seats of the J&K Legislative Assembly, for which the results were declared on Friday.

In the Nagrota assembly seat in Jammu, eight candidates out of 10 forfeited their deposits. The candidates who lost their deposits included the ruling party’s Shamim Begum.

A candidate forfeits the deposit if they fail to secure more than 16.67 per cent of the total valid votes polled.

In Nagrota, 73,833 valid votes were polled, while in Budgam, 63,099 were polled.

Begum got 15 per cent of the valid votes polled. She polled 10,872 votes and stood at number three — 31,478 votes behind the winner, BJP’s Devyani Rana. Besides her, the other losing candidates managed to garner only triple-digit votes for the seat.

In the Budgam constituency, where 17 candidates contested the bypoll, 15 forfeited their deposits. The list includes BJP candidate Aga Syed Mohsin Mosvi, who managed to poll only 2,619 votes. None Of The Above (NOTA) options secured more votes than eleven candidates in the two seats.

While NOTA got 544 votes in Budgam, it polled 349 votes in Nagrota.