National Conference-Congress Alliance Takes Decisive Lead In J&K Polls

New Delhi: The counting of votes for the 2024 Jammu and Kashmir Assembly election started at 8 am on Tuesday. It was the first Assembly poll since Article 370 was scrapped in August 2019 and the first since 2014.

The early leads showed that the Congress-National Conference was in a decisive lead. At 10 am the Congress-NC was leading in 52 seats and the BJP in 22.

The People’s Democratic Party of ex-Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti – whose party allied with the BJP after the 2014 election but parted ways in 2018 – was leading in two.

Independent candidates are in lead position in 14 seats.

The Congress is leading in only eight of the 39 seats it is contesting.

The NC, which fielded candidates for 56 seats is ahead in 44. The PDP, which won 28 seats in the 2014 poll has not fared well.

The race to control the former state’s 95 Assembly seats – of which five have been nominated by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha in a controversial move – is predicted to be a close one.

The PDP could be the ‘kingmaker’ for the Congress-NC, but not for the BJP, which will also need support from non-aligned lawmakers.

It is with this in mind that NC leaders Farooq Abdullah and his son, Omar Abdullah, and the Congress, as well as the PDP, have criticised the Lieutenant Governor’s move to nominate five members.

Meanwhile, the PDP has ruled out a re-run of its 2019 alliance with the BJP, insisting it will only consider a ‘secular alliance’. It has hinted at PDP aligning with the Congress-NC combine.