Jammu and Kashmir election results: Who won with the highest and lowest margins?
BJP candidate Devender Rana achieved the highest victory margin, winning the Nagrota seat by 30,472 votes.
The INDIA bloc is set to establish the first elected government in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir after winning the assembly elections, securing 49 out of 90 seats. National Conference (NC) and Indian National Congress (INC) together won 48 seats.
This marks the first electoral process since the abrogation of Article 370 five years ago. The National Conference (NC), the oldest party in J&K, emerged as the leading party, winning 42 seats and falling just six seats short of an outright majority. The BJP also achieved significant gains, winning 29 seats, its best performance in the region to date, up from 25 seats in the 2014 elections.
Although J&K BJP president Ravindra Raina faced defeat from Nowshera, the party's vote share rose from 23 per cent in 2014 to 25.64 per cent this year.
National Conference (NC) vice president Omar Abdullah, who has been announced as the next chief minister by his father and NC patron Farooq Abdullah, secured the Budgam assembly seat in Jammu and Kashmir by defeating the People Democratic Party (PDP)'s Aga Syed Muntazir Mehdi with a margin exceeding 18,000 votes.
Abdullah also won in the party's stronghold of Ganderbal, defeating PDP's Bashir Ahmad Mir by more than 10,000 votes in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly election.
Here are the highest and lowest vote margins achieved by candidates in Jammu and Kashmir's assembly elections.
Highest Margin
In the Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections, BJP candidate Devender Rana achieved the highest victory margin, winning the Nagrota seat by 30,472 votes, according to the Election Commission of India (ECI).
Rana, who previously won his seat in the 2014 elections as a National Conference (NC) candidate, successfully defended his position against NC's Joginder Singh, who garnered 17,641 votes.
AICC general secretary Ghulam Ahmad Mir also recorded a notable win, with a margin of 29,728 votes. Surjit Singh Slathia, an NC defector who won the Samba seat by a margin of 29,481 votes, also secured a significant victory.
Additionally, five other BJP candidates won their seats by margins exceeding 20,000 votes. The NC, which emerged as the largest party with 42 seats in the 90-member assembly, had two candidates—Irshad Rasool Kar and Aijaz Ahmad Jan—who won by margins of 20,356 and 20,879 votes, respectively.
Lowest Margin
In the Tral assembly seat, PDP's Rafiq Ahmad Naik won with a narrow margin of just 460 votes amid a multi-cornered contest. The BJP's Shagun Parihar in Kishtwar secured victory with a slightly higher margin of 521 votes against NC's Sajad Kitchloo.
Several candidates, including Sajad Gani Lone of the People's Conference, won their seats with margins under 1,000 votes. NC's Javaid Riyaz defeated People's Conference candidate Imran Ansari by a mere 603 votes, while Independent Pyare Lal Sharma triumphed over former minister G M Saroori by 643 votes in a competitive race.
Sharma received 14,195 votes, followed closely by Saroori with 13,552, Congress's Mohammad Zafarullah with 12,533, and BJP's Tariq Hussain Keen with 9,550 votes.
Sajad Gani Lone retained his family's stronghold in Handwara with a tight margin of 662 votes.
