While the National Conference has emerged as the single largest party, bagging 28 of the 87 seats, PDP is second with 21 seats. The Congress has 17, BJP 11- a net improvement of 10 seats and Panthers Party an emerging force in Jammu region, has won 3 seats.
The valley, which sends as many as 46 MLA to the state Assembly, is divided between NC and PDP.
Election pundits said that BJP, riding on popular sentiments generated by its backing of Amarnath agitation has bagged 11 of the 20 Hindu dominated seats. However poll results do not substantiate this claim. The main agitation center of Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti has gone in favour of Congress and the Panthers Party. BJP has almost lost in these seats and even a Sangharsh Samiti’s martyr’s wife has lost in the Bishna assembly seat. In Udhampur the Panthers Party has bagged three seats.
If the congress managed to put a halt to the rampaging BJP in this region the credit goes to Ghulam Nabi Azad , who not only retained his own seats but also helped Congress win 13 seats in Jammu region.
This election had 1354 contestants for 87 seats of which 67 were women. The successful women candidates include PDP president Mehbooba and NC Shamima Firdos.
The independents did not fare well this time.
Even as the results of the assembly election, which showed a 62 percent turnout, were declared, the separatists maintained that the Azadi sentiments were still alive among the people. The separatist leadership is still in denial mode and are not willing to accept that people actually voted. However Sajjad Ghani lone acknowledged the fact “these elections are forcing a rethink of strategy. The grammar of our movement has remained unchanged since 1989. Yes, we have had setback.”
In the last one year, there has been a reduction in militancy related incidents and experts say the fear factor has come down and it is the chief cause for the higher voter turnout in the Jammu and Kashmir elections. In contrast to 2002 assembly election, there was higher turnout this time. The credit also goes to security forces that have succeeded in curbing militancy. However Farooq Abdullah gave credit to Pakistan and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen.
The NC looks certain to stake a claim to form the next government. However it has polled three percentage points less than it had did in 2002. It got 25 percent of the votes polled as compared to 28 percent it got in 2002. The real gainers are PDP and BJP. The BJP has received a 9 percent boost in its vote share in the Jammu region .The Congress has gone down from 25 percent to 20 percent this time
Monday, December 29, 2008
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