By Omar Abdullah, former chief minister of India-held Jammu and Kashmir, is poised to resume leadership after his party, the National Conference (NC), secured nearly half of the total seats in the recent state elections. This marks the first state election in the disputed region since 2014.
The National Conference won 42 out of 90 seats, with its ally, the Indian National Congress, claiming eight seats, bringing their coalition total to 50. In contrast, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) achieved its best performance in the region with 29 seats.
While the NC-Congress alliance celebrated its success in Jammu and Kashmir, the Congress faced a significant setback in Haryana, where the BJP captured 48 out of 90 assembly seats, leaving the Congress with only 36. This unexpected outcome led to allegations of electoral manipulation, with Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh claiming that electronic voting machines (EVMs) were tampered with and that the election commission was biased.
Ramesh criticized the Haryana results as a “victory of manipulations,” asserting that the counting process and EVM functioning had serious issues in about 14 constituencies. He vowed to address these concerns with the Election Commission, stating that the results contradicted public sentiment for change.
In light of the Jammu and Kashmir election results, Ramesh remarked that voters had rejected the BJP’s “mischievous designs” to gain a majority in the region. He emphasized the NC-Congress alliance’s commitment to restoring statehood, which had been stripped from Jammu and Kashmir.
