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  India   Jammu & Kashmir CM Mehbooba Mufti wins big in Anantnag

Jammu & Kashmir CM Mehbooba Mufti wins big in Anantnag

| YUSUF JAMEEL
Published : Jun 26, 2016, 1:51 am IST
Updated : Jun 26, 2016, 1:51 am IST

Jammu & Kashmir chief minister and PDP chief, Ms Mehbooba Mufti, was declared the winner of the Southern Anantnag by-poll on Saturday, which was hardly fought seriously by the Opposition.

J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti talks on her phone during an event at a college in Srinagar. (Photo: PTI)
 J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti talks on her phone during an event at a college in Srinagar. (Photo: PTI)

Jammu & Kashmir chief minister and PDP chief, Ms Mehbooba Mufti, was declared the winner of the Southern Anantnag by-poll on Saturday, which was hardly fought seriously by the Opposition.

The segment with over 84,000 voters was being represented earlier by her father and predecessor Mufti Muhammad Sayeed who died in January this year. In the by-poll held on Wednesday, only 33.84 per cent of the electorate voted.

The low turnout was termed by separatists as their “victory” and an endorsement of their poll boycott call.

The 57-year-old Ms Mufti polled 17,710 votes while her nearest rival, Congress’ Mr Hilal Shah got 5,616 votes. The National Conference (NC), the arch rival of the PDP, finished only third with its candidate Mr Iftikhar Misgar polling 2,811 votes.

Ms Mufti is currently an MP from Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency and she had to get elected to either house of the J&K legislature within six months of her taking over as the Chief Minister, on April 4 this year.

Though there were half a dozen independents also in the fray, all of them proved to be insignificant and lost their deposits.

Ms Mufti will now quit as Anantnag MP and there are indications that her brother, well-known Bollywood cinematographer Mr Tassaduq Sayeed, may be asked by the PDP to contest from the Muftis’ home constituency.

The CM, while extending her gratitude to the voters of Anantnag for giving her a “decisive and resounding” mandate to implement the “mission and vision” of her father, said, “I wish to extend my heartfelt gratitude to the emancipated voters of Anantnag and our party cadres for their support and hard work.”

She added, “This victory belongs to you, the people of Anantnag and the people of Jammu and Kashmir, on whose support I will be counting immensely in the days and months to come to pull the state out of the morass and usher it into an era of peace and prosperity.

“It is an honour and a privilege to be elected from a seat which was represented by my father and I’m heartened that the voters of Anantnag have put their trust in me to continue the work on his behalf.”

“I’m also grateful to my Pandit brethren for having voted decisively in my favour,” she added.

Terming Ms Mufti’s victory as “huge” and “definite”, the PDP said the people had reposed their faith in Mufti Sayeed’s idea of sewing together a PDP-BJP alliance “for the larger good and development of the state.” It also said that the voters “have not fallen for the gimmicks played by the opposition”.

Meanwhile, the Congress, NC and others boycotted counting of votes after allegations that the electronic voting machines had been tampered with.

Congress candidate Mr Shah, while protesting inside the counting hall, alleged that the EVMs “were without seals and the signatures on them didn’t match”.

He termed it a brazen election rigging by the PDP and said that the administration had played a “very dirty role” in manipulating the results. He also alleged that Anantnag’s district magistrate, Mr Abid Rashid Shah, had threatened to jail the protesting candidates.

Mr Shah, however, strongly denied it, asserting that the Congress candidate and his supporters had tried to break an EVM and when he tried to discipline them, they started protesting.

Meanwhile, Anantnag town and its surroundings observed a shutdown on Saturday after the security forces were accused of desecrating a local mosque amid clashes with groups of irate youth on Friday.

Location: India, Jammu and Kashmir, Srinagar