Setback in Pir Panjal Region: BJP could win only 1 seat out of 8 from Rajouri & Poonch.

GNS ONLINE NEWS PORTAL

SHYAM SOOD 

RAJOURI OCT 08:–In the first Assembly Elections after the abrogation of Article 370 & reorganisation of Jammu & Kashmir, BJP led by Ravinder Raina achieved its best-ever performance in the assembly polls with 29 seats.
But on the other hand, Ravinder Raina has failed to retain his Nowshera seat in Rajouri district and even the BJP received a big jolt in Pir Panjal Region as it lost seven seats out of eight Assembly seats including three in Poonch district and five in Rajouri district.

With eye on the Assembly Elections, BJP has extended Schedule Tribe (ST) status to Pahari speaking community and BJP was expecting 4-5 seats from this region.

Has the Pahari community betrayed the BJP? People asking this question.
But BJP even failed to retain Nowshera seat and also faced defeat in Rajouri Assembly Constituency from where ex-MLC and BJP State General Secretary was contesting.

BJP could succeed in retaining 83-Kalakote-Sunderbani seat where Uncle Randhir Singh (BJP) defeated his nephew Yashu Wardhan Singh by 14409 votes.

In 85-Rajouri Assembly Constituency (ST) Congress candidate Iftkhar Ahmed defeated BJP State General Secretary Vibodh Gupta with a margin of 1404 votes while National Conference candidate Surinder Kumar Choudhary defeated BJP candidate and State President Ravinder Raina by 7819 votes.
In another interesting contest for 86-Budhal Constituency (ST), NC candidate Bhanja (nephew) Javaid Iqbal defeated his Mama (uncle) BJP candidate Zulfkar Ali by a huge margin of 18908 votes.

87-Thanamandi Assembly constituency, a newly created constituency after delimitation of segments, saw a big upset where independent candidate (who was denied ticket by National Conference) Muzaffar Iqbal Khan (Retd Judge) emerged winner by defeating bigwigs including former Minister Mohd Shabir Khan (Congress), former MLA Rajouri (PDP) Qamar Hussain and BJP candidate Mohd Iqbal Malik.

Muzaffar Iqbal Khan, a Supreme Court lawyer, has a large following and managed sympathy votes of Paharis as well as of Gujjars/ Bakerwals and defeated his nearest rival BJP candidate by 6179 votes.

Despite his defeat, Ravinder Raina, State BJP President, thanked the people for the party’s overall success as in the history of J&K, BJP achieved a record 29 seats.

Meanwhile, the people of Rajouri & Poonch districts like in Kashmir, have rejected the People Democratic Party (PDP) as the party lost its two seats in 2014 including Darhal (Now Budhal) and Rajouri.

Pahari Community candidates have won Nowshera(Surinder Choudhary), Kalakote (Th Randhir Singh), Rajouri (Iftkahr Ahmed), and Thanamandi Assembly (Muzaffar Iqbal Khan) seats while members of Gujjar Community have won Budhal seat in Rajouri and Surankote & Mendhar in Poonch district.