Last Updated on December 23, 2020 at 1:23 pm
District Development Council (DDC) election results in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday has given a lead to the People’s Alliance For Gupkar Declaration (PAGD). The latest numbers are:
BJP: 74
NC: 67
Independent: 49
PDP: 27
INC: 26
JKAP: 12
CPI(M): 5
The Farooq Abdullah-led People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration has secured a big victory in the first elections held in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019. The Gupkar alliance has won or is leading in around 100 seats of the total 280 in the elections.
Even as the vote-counting is not over, it is clear that the Bharatiya Janata Party is emerging as the single largest party leading 75 DDC seats. BJP is sweeping the Hindu-dominated districts — Jammu, Udhampur, Kathua and Samba — in the Jammu region, leading in 49 out 56 DDC seats.
The poll results establish that the BJP has gained victory in at least six District Development Councils (DDCs) in Jammu and none in Kashmir. The People’s Alliance has got a majority in nine DDCs, all in the Kashmir region. As in five councils, no party has got a clear majority, the independent candidates are likely to be kingmakers.
BJP National Spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain announced BJP’s win in Kashmir on Twitter.
He tweeted that the first lotus has bloomed in Kashmir. Engineer Aijaz Hussain has won from Khanmoh II, Srinagar, Kashmir by a good margin. People have expressed their faith in the leadership of PM Narendra Modi and made BJP victorious.
The DDC elections were held in the UT for the first time after the revocation of its special status and bifurcation of the former state. The newly created DDCs contested polls in eight phases from November 28 to December 22.
There were 280 DDC seats in total with 14 each in 20 districts of Jammu and Kashmir. These seats were created after the Centre amended the J&K Panchayati Raj Act of 1989 in October this year.
Main oppositional parties of the region formed an alliance demanding pre-August 5, 2019 conditions for the erstwhile state. NC leader Farooq Abdullah was announced its president and PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti was appointed vice president of the alliance. The two former chief ministers and Omar Abdullah were also detained after the abrogation of Article 370 and were charged with Public Safety Act (PSA).
A clear majority secured by the PAGD will act as a confidence-booster for its demands in the near future.
