This time only one former chief minister is trying his luck in the Jammu and Kashmir elections.
Assembly elections are being held in Jammu and Kashmir after a long wait of a decade. There is a special atmosphere in this union territory regarding the elections to be held after the year 2014. The special thing about the assembly elections is that this time many big faces are not seen challenging in the election field, including 3 powerful leaders of the valley. These three leaders have also held the post of Chief Minister of the state. This includes a leader who got 63 percent of the votes in the election and the deposits of the rest of the candidates were forfeited.
Apart from Mehbooba Mufti and Ghulam Nabi Azad, senior leader Farooq Abdullah is among the three big names in state politics who are not contesting the long-awaited assembly polls. Among these, Ghulam Nabi Azad is the only leader who has left his old party, the other two remain leaders of their respective parties.
Bail forfeiture of 12 out of 13 on Bhadarwah seat
Before August 2019, Article 370 was in force in Jammu and Kashmir and it had special state status, after which assembly elections were held every 6 years instead of 5 years. The case is of 2008 elections. The National Conference emerged as the single largest party in the subsequent assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, winning 28 of the 85 seats. The People’s Democratic Party came second with 21 seats. Congress got 17 seats. While Bharatiya Janata Party got only 11 seats.
In this election, there was a one-sided contest on the Bhadarwah assembly seat of Doda district in Jammu division. At that time there were a total of 93,183 voters. 13 candidates contested the fray, but the contest was between Congress’s Ghulam Nabi Azad and Bharatiya Janata Party’s Daya Krishna. Ghulam Nabi got about 63 percent of the total votes cast. 38,238 votes came in his account.
NC-PDP did not get 10 thousand votes
Daya Krishna, who challenged the then Chief Minister and Congress candidate Ghulam Nabi Azad, got only 14.5 percent of the votes. Apart from these two, other candidates also got less votes. The situation was such that the deposits of 12 of the 13 contesting candidates were forfeited. Ghulam Nabi Azad won by a margin of 48 percent (29,436 votes). Both the candidates of National Conference (NC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have not got even 10 thousand votes here.
Let’s go to the 2002 assembly elections, shortly before the election results. Through this election, Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) was introduced for the first time in Jammu and Kashmir. Even in this election, no party got absolute majority. The National Conference emerged as the single largest party in the elections and won 28 seats. However, despite being a large party, it could not succeed in forming the government.
Congress’ 30-year drought is over
On the other hand, the Congress (20 seats) signed a post-poll pact with the People’s Democratic Party (16 seats). A formula of 50:50 was fixed for government formation. People’s Democratic Party will hold the post of Chief Minister for 3 years and Congress will hold the post of Chief Minister for the next 3 years. Earlier Mufti Mohammad Saeed of Peoples Democratic Party got this post. He remained the Chief Minister for 3 years (2 November 2002 to 2 November 2005).
Then this post came to the account of Congress. After a long wait of almost 30 years, a Congress leader became the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. Before this, Syed Mir Qasim was the last CM from Congress. Syed Mir Qasim became CM twice. He was the last Chief Minister from 17 June 1972 to 25 February 1975.
A big win for himself but a setback for the Congress
After the PDP vacated the post of CM, the Congress made senior leader and former Union Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad its Chief Minister and he remained in the post till the end of the term of the Assembly. Ghulam Nabi Azad was the Chief Minister from 2 November 2005 to 11 July 2008. The Congress contested the 2008 elections under his leadership, but this time the party’s seats fell to only 17 seats in its account. However, he definitely won big in the elections.
After the elections, the Congress again became a partner in the new government. But this time instead of forming a government with the People’s Democratic Party, it allied with the National Conference. The National Conference, which won the highest number of 28 seats in the elections, has a majority over the Congress. This time Omar Abdullah has become the new Chief Minister of the state.
Omar Abdullah is once again contesting from the same high-profile Ganderbal seat where three consecutive generations of him have been able to win elections and become the Chief Minister. The seat is very important for the Abdullah family as first his grandfather Sheikh Abdullah, then his father Farooq Abdullah won elections from here and later became the CM. In 2002, Omar lost his first assembly election, but in 2008, he won from the same seat and became the chief minister of the state. This time the only leader in the election fray is a former Chief Minister of the state.
