Scare, PDP a casualty, Cong romps home
Of total 89, Cong’s Balbir Singh secured 31 votes while BJP’s Vikram Randhawa and PDP’s Abdul Q Dar got 29 votes each
JAMMU: While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — a partner in the ruling combine, survived a scare, its partner — People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which expected a smooth sailing, was a casualty in the legislative council elections for the two seats of Jammu here on Monday.
Chief electoral officer (CEO) of Jammu and Kashmir Shantmanu told Hindustan Times, “Out of a total of 89 votes of the legislative assembly, Balbir Singh of Congress was polled 31 votes while BJP’s Vikram Randhawa and PDP’s Abdul Qayoom Dar got 29 votes each.”
“Since there was a tie between BJP and PDP candidates, we went for draw of lots in which the BJP candidate won,” the CEO added.
He informed that open ballot was applicable to the legislators belonging to various parties whereas five independent legislators had to go for secret ballot.
The 87 elected and two nominated members of the J&K legislative assembly form the electoral college for the house of elders. PDP has 28 members and BJP has 25. The main Opposition National Conference has 15 MLAs while Congress has 12.
On April 3, three candidates — PDP’s Yasir Reshi, BJP’s GL Raina (aka Ajay Bharti) and NC’s Aga Syed Mahmood Al-Mosavi — were declared elected unopposed for three seats of Kashmir division, whereas BJP’s Pradeep Sharma was declared elected unopposed for the reserved seat of Poonch.
With their uncontested election, two seats of the Jammu division were up for grabs for which, PDP had fielded Abdul Qayoom Dar, BJP fielded Vikram Randhwa while Congress had fielded Balbir Singh.
Despite ‘hectic’ canvassing and impromptu visit of the party’s national general secretary Ram Madhav on April 6 to garner support for Randhawa, he survived a scare and PDP, which had been expecting a smooth sailing for Dar, has become a casualty.
Incompetence of the BJP during 2015 Rajya Sabha elections still remains fresh in the minds of many when Congress leaders of the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad had defeated BJP candidate Chander Mohan Sharma by two votes in the J&K polls.
Independent members of legislative assembly, viz, Engineer Abdul Rashid from Kupwara, Pawan Gupta from Udhampur (once a minister in the Mufti Mohammed Sayeed’s cabinet), Syed Mohammed Baqir Rizvi from Zanskar, MY Tarigami of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) from Kulgam, and Hakim Mohammed Yasin of People’s Democratic Front from Khansahib held the key to the prospects of the candidates in fray.