Omar Abdullah's Party Loses Bypoll On Stronghold Seat He Vacated Last Year

In a huge setback for Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, his party the National Conference (NC), has lost the bypoll in Budgam, the assembly seat he had vacated last year. This is the first time that the party has lost in its bastion of Budgam since 1957, the first elections for the legislative assembly.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Aga Syed Muntazir has won the seat, defeating NC's Aga Syed Mahmood by 4,478 votes.

The Budgam bypoll was being seen as the first test of Abdullah's popularity amid Opposition allegations of poor governance during his last year in office.

The NC has also failed to win the Nagrota bypoll. The BJP retained the assembly constituency after its candidate Devyani Rana won with a lead of 24,647 votes, carrying forward the legacy of her late father and senior party leader Devender Singh Rana.

She defeated Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) candidate Harsh Dev Singh, who polled 17,703 votes. National Conference's Shamim Begum finished third with 10,872 votes.

The NC has won every assembly election in Budgam whenever it has fielded a candidate from the Shia-dominated segment. The only time the NC did not represent the seat was in 1972 when the party had boycotted the polls across J-K.

Abdullah vacated the seat after he won the family bastion of Ganderbal as well in last year's assembly polls.

Before he won the Budgam seat, it was represented by NC's current Lok Sabha MP from Srinagar, Aga Rahullah Mehdi, for three consecutive terms in 2002, 2008 and 2014. He did not contest the 2024 polls as he was elected to the Lok Sabha.

The biggest challenge during the run-up to the bypoll, however, came from Mehdi, who openly revolted against it. The fallout was over several issues, including the reservation policy in Jammu and Kashmir.

Even though he has maintained that his criticism is not anti-party, Mehdi didn't campaign for the party's candidate for the by-election.

To counter the challenge posed by Mehdi, the Chief Minister spent the last three days on the campaign trail, deploying his cabinet colleagues and the ruling party MLAs and senior leaders to campaign for the party candidate.