Ravinder Raina, chief of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s unit in Jammu and Kashmir, was trailing from the Nowshera constituency as the counting of votes for the Assembly elections was underway on Tuesday, data from the Election Commission showed.
At 1.20 pm, Raina was behind the National Conference’s Surinder Kumar Choudhary by a margin of over 8,000 votes.
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In the 2014 Jammu and Kashmir polls, Raina had won the Nowshera seat by over 9,000 votes.
As of 1.20 pm on Tuesday, the BJP had won five seats and was leading in 24 constituencies in the Jammu region.
The National Conference had won three seats and was ahead in 42 constituencies, mostly in the Kashmir Valley. Its ally, the Congress, was leading in six seats.
While the Peoples Democratic Party was ahead in three seats, the People’s Conference was leading in one constituency.
The Legislative Assembly in Jammu and Kashmir has a strength of 119 members. While elections took place in 90 constituencies, 24 more seats are designated for areas that are in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The lieutenant governor has the power to appoint five members. Therefore, a party or an alliance needs 48 seats for a majority when the House has 95 members.
The Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir took place in three phases on September 18, September 25 and October 1. A voter turnout of 63.8% was recorded.
Most exit polls on Saturday projected the National Conference-Congress alliance to be ahead of the BJP.
The Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir were the first in 10 years and since the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution in August 2019, which gave special status to the erstwhile state. The Centre had at the time also bifurcated the state into two Union territories: Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
Also read: The BJP’s impossible task in Kashmir Valley