Srinagar: After the results of the Jammu and Kashmir’s District Development Council (DDC) elections, the Gupkar Alliance, a combination of six regional parties like National Conference (NC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Tuesday emerged victorious, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) became the single largest party.
The Gupkar alliance has won more than 100 seats; while BJP has won 74 seats. The Congress has won 27 seats.
The voting was conducted on 280 seats, 14 in each of the 20 districts of the union territory (UT). The election was completed in eight phases over 25 days.
Talking about Jammu, the BJP has won 71 seats, while the Gupkar Alliance 35 and Congress won only 17 seats.
About Kashmir, the Farooq Abdullah-led alliance got 72 seats, the BJP won 3, and the Congress won only 10 seats.
However, parties opposing BJP have said that their candidates were not allowed to campaign citing security reasons. But the central government denied all the allegations.
The Gupkar Alliance was constituted during the protest against the massive constitutional changes on August 5, 2019, when Article 370 on special status to Jammu and Kashmir was abrogated by Union Government and J&K was turned into two union territories.
Omar Abdullah told NDTV, “The verdict means a lot to us. It means more to us than what I can put into words. I think it should also mean something to the BJP.”
He further said, “The BJP has beaten every drum that the people of J&K are very happy with what happened on August 5. Today, the people of J&K have given their decision on what they think about 2019. They do not support it. They have overwhelmingly rejected BJP’s propaganda.”
Anurag Thakur, Union Minister and BJP’s in-charge of these polls called the results a victory of democracy. He told the news agency ANI, “Even though people were threatened, they came out in huge numbers to cast their vote. This is the victory of democracy. PM Modi’s dream that at grassroots level polls should be held in J&K has been fulfilled.”