National Conference holds upper hand in J&K alliance as Congress performance below par

SRINAGAR, (IANS): The Congress-National Conference alliance has triumphed in the J&K Assembly polls, winning 49 of the 90 seats in the results declared on Tuesday, but it is the latter, regional party which has walked away with the honours.

The two parties had declared a seat-sharing arrangement for 83 seats - 51 for the National Conference and 32 for the Congress - mostly in the Jammu region, and a 'friendly fight' on five seats as they were unable to reach a consensus.

One seat each was left for smaller allies - the Communist Party of India-Marxist and the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party.

However, the number of friendly fight seats grew to six.

Out of 56 seats it contested, the National Conference ended up winning 42 across both the Kashmir Valley and the Jammu region, achieving a 75 per cent strike rate. It also notched up an impressive win in the Nowshera seat where its Surinder Kumar Choudhry defeated the BJP's J&K President Ravinder Raina. However, its tally may dip by one as party Vice President and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has won from both seats - Ganderbal and Budgam - he contested.

On the other hand, but the Congress only won six out of those in its kitty, or less than 20 per cent. Five of its victories were in the Kashmir Valley and out of the seats it contested in the Jammu region, it only won one - Rajouri-ST, and that too, by a slender margin of just over 1,400 votes. Its total is even less than the seven Independents that have won - including five in the Jammu region.

While its J&K unit chief Tariq Hameed Karra (Central Shalateng) and his predecessors like Ghulam Ahmad Mir (Dooru) and Peerzada Mohammad Syed (Anantnag) won, former chief Vikar Rasool Wani lost in Banihal - one of the seats where there was a friendly fight.

Other prominent losers included Working President and former Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand (Chhamb), another Working President and former minister Raman Bhalla (R.S. Pura-Jammu South), two-time former MP Choudhary Lal Singh (Basohli), and former ministers Manohar Lal Sharma (Billawar), Yogesh Sawhney (Jammu East), and Mohd Shabir Khan (Thanamandi).

Even in the friendly fights, the NC won the Sopore, Baramulla, Banihal, and Devsar seats, while Bhadarwah ended up going to the BJP and the Aam Aadmi Party won Doda to open its account in Jammu and Kashmir.

Of the allies, CPI-M's Mohamad Yousaf Tarigami won the Kupwara seat, but J&K National Panthers Party's Harsh Dev Singh lost in the Chenani seat of Udhampur district.

The National Conference, which is close to the magic halfway mark on its own, is likely to call the shots in the next government it will form.