Srinagar, Jammu – In a tight race, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) took the Budgam assembly seat from the National Conference (NC), while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) held on to the Nagrota seat in the by‑poll results announced Friday.
In Budgam, PDP’s Aga Syed Muntazir Mehdi beat NC’s Aga Syed Mehmood by just over 4,100 votes. The contest was a direct follow‑up to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s resignation from the seat. Abdullah, who had won both Budgam and Ganderbal in the 2024 election, chose to keep Ganderbal and vacated Budgam, prompting the by‑poll.
NC’s candidate, Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi, a local from Budgam, did not support the campaign because of a rift with the party leadership. He was absent from rallies, a move that cost the NC many votes. Paradoxically, PDP supporters who cheered in the victory celebration were seen chanting slogans for Ruhullah Mehdi as well.
Nagrota saw a landslide victory for BJP. Devyani Rana, daughter of the late Devender Singh Rana – who had won the seat in 2024 and whose death in October triggered the vote – defeated Panthers’ Harsh Dev Singh by more than 21,000 votes. NC’s Shamim Begum finished a distant third with just over 10,000 votes.
Celebrations erupted in Jammu for the BJP win, and the party’s new representative will now join the 90‑member Jammu and Kashmir assembly. The BJP holds 29 seats, the NC 41, and the PDP has risen to 4 seats in the legislature.
These results reshape the political balance in the region ahead of the next state election cycle.
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