Congress wins Anantnag, Leh, BJP makes its mark in Kashmir
Results of 17 seats from Bandipora in north Kashmir
BJP: 3
Cong: 12
Independent: 2
Results of 13 seats from Uri in North Kashmir’s Baramulla
BJP: 0
Congress: 6
Independent: 7
All the 13 wards of Kupwara municipality in north Kashmir won by Independents.
In Handwara municipality, which is bastion of people’s conference, six Independents have won while as one ward has been gone to BJP. The six Independents are People’s Conference candidates
BJP sweeps the Mattan municipality in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district. Five wards won by BJP and two by Congress.
In 17-ward Dooru-Verinag Municipal Committee of south Kashmir’s Anantnag district, Congress wins 14 seats and BJP two.
Congress sweeps in Budgam. In six municipalities of Central Kashmir’s Budgam district, Congress won 23 seats, Independents 16 and BJP 5
South Kashmir’s Kokernag: Congress: 10 Independent: 2
Officials say 30,739 votes polled in four-phases of the municipal elections will be counted at district headquarters of Kashmir.
The election authorities have established 20 halls at the Sher-e-Kashmir International Convocation Centre (SKICC) located on the banks of Dal Lake for the counting of 18,482 votes polled across 74 wards of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC).
Eight candidates have won uncontested from the SMC. At least 19,550 votes will be counted from central Kashmir’s Srinagar, Ganderbal, and Budgam districts.
Similarly, counting of 10,529 votes polled out of 65,146 in north Kashmir’s three districts – Kupwara, Baramulla, and Badipora – will be held at the respective district headquarters.
The central Kashmir districts recorded a voter turnout of 5.1 per cent while as north Kashmir districts recorded 16.2 per cent voter turnout.
The violence hit south Kashmir recorded the lowest turnout of 1.6 per cent as only 660 votes were polled out of 40,004 in 20 municipalities spread over four districts.
Authorities have put in adequate security arrangements in district headquarters of south Kashmir for the vote counting.
The Congress won two prominent Municipal Councils of Kashmir, while BJP for the first time managed to win few committees in the four-phase elections to local bodies as counting began early Saturday morning amid tight security at various centres.
The elections saw abysmal voter turnout with just four per cent of them casting their votes in Kashmir while Ladakh and Jammu regions saw good participation.
In Baramulla Municipal Council, Congress won 12, while BJP came second with five seats.
In South Kashmir’s Anantnag Municipal Council, Congress bagged 20 out of 23 wards while the BJP won in three wards.
In Uri while Congress won six wards, while independents managed to secure 7 wards in the 13-member committee. In Watergam BJP won eight seats unopposed and one seat was bagged by an independent candidate.
In Leh Municipality, Congress swept all 13 seats. The party won five wards in Kargil while independents were declared elected to six wards. The BJP drew a blank in Leh and Kargil.
In Srinagar Municipal Corporation so far Congress has won 2 seats and BJP won a single seat as counting is going on 74 seats.
The BJP won opposed in 12 wards in Shopian while five wards in the district did not have any nominations. In Devsar municipal committee, the party won all the eight seats.
The BJP got a simple majority in Qazigund Municipal Committee, winning four of the seven wards. The other three wards had no candidates.
In Pahalgam municipal committee, the party won seven of the 13 seats uncontested, while there were no candidates for the remaining six seats.
Two big mainstream parties NC and the PDP had stayed away from these polls blaming government for linking the case of Article 35A of the Constitution with the local body and panchayat elections. Separatist groups including the Hurriyat Conference boycotted the elections.
There were no signs of any electioneering in the run up to the polls after militant outfits threatened to target those taking part in the polls.
