Jammu: A Muslim candidate has won on a BJP ticket in Jammu’s Rajouri district – a first in decades in the state. His opponent was a Hindu and the two-time sitting legislator of the National Conference.
Abdul Gani Kohli of the BJP defeated two-time legislator of the National Conference Rashpal Singh by a margin of 6,178 votes from Kalakote Assembly seat of Rajouri district. Candidates from the Congress and the PDP occupied the third and the fourth positions.
The BJP, which had set itself a target of 50-plus seats in the assembly elections, had fielded 31 Muslim candidates including Kohli. Most of them had been contested from the Kashmir Valley.
While a majority of these candidates have lost and some are awaiting poll results, Kohli is the first BJP candidate from the Muslim community who has won from Jammu region in several decades.
In 1972, Sheikh Abdul Rehman had won the Jammu East seat on the ticket of then Bhartiya Jan Sangh.
The Kalakote assembly seat, which was carved out to give representation to the far-flung areas of the state in 1996, was bagged twice by the NC and once by the Congress.
Besides Kohli, several BJP Muslim candidates garnered sizable number of votes and two of them lost by a thin margin in Rajouri and Inderwal seats.
In the Rajouri assembly seat, BJP candidate Choudhary Talib Hussain lost to Qamar Hussain of PDP by over 2,000 votes.
In Muslim-dominated Banihal constituency of Ramban district, Showkat Javed Daing of the BJP stood third.
Follow this link to join our WhatsApp group: Join Now
Be Part of Quality Journalism |
Quality journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce and despite all the hardships we still do it. Our reporters and editors are working overtime in Kashmir and beyond to cover what you care about, break big stories, and expose injustices that can change lives. Today more people are reading Kashmir Observer than ever, but only a handful are paying while advertising revenues are falling fast. |
| ACT NOW |
| MONTHLY | Rs 100 |  |
| YEARLY | Rs 1000 | |
| LIFETIME | Rs 10000 | |
