Srinagar: The ruling National Conference (NC) suffered a major setback on Friday (October 14) after losing the Budgam bypolls to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which termed the victory as a “referendum” on the policies of chief minister Omar Abdullah.

The result in Budgam is being interpreted by some in Kashmir as a sobering reminder of the widespread anger and anti-incumbency against the Abdullah government which completed its first year in office last month.

In an oblique reaction to the election result, the disgruntled NC leader from Budgam and Srinagar Lok Sabha member Syed Aga Ruhullah who has publicly criticised Abdullah for his alleged governance failures said that "arrogance is the recipe for disaster".

The result of the by-elections to two assembly constituencies in the Union territory was declared by the Election Commission of India on Friday (November 14).

The Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) retained its stronghold Nagrota assembly constituency in Jammu region with a huge margin of 24,647 votes over the closest rival from J&K National Panthers Party (NPP).

In the closely-watched Budgam contest, the PDP’s Syed Aga Muntazir trounced the ruling party’s Syed Aga Mehmood with more than 4,400 votes, per the ECI data.

While Muntazir got 21,576 votes, Mehmood came second with 17,098 votes while independent candidates Jibran Dar and Nazir Ahmad Khan came third and fourth with 7,152 and 3,089 votes respectively.

As The Wire has reported earlier, it was widely believed that independent candidates in Budgam could play a significant role in making or breaking the fortunes of the NC and the PDP candidates who were the main contenders.

The contest went down to the wire on Friday with the PDP candidate maintaining a thin lead of around ,3000 votes over the NC’s Mehmood till the counting of half of the valid ballots was completed.

 'A message to the government'

However, by the end of 17 rounds of counting, Muntazir, who was defeated by chief minister Abdullah in the 2024 J&K assembly election with more than 18,000 votes was declared winner with a margin of 4,478 votes this time around.

After being elected from two constituencies in the 2024 elections, Abdullah had vacated the central Kashmir seat while retaining his party’s traditional Ganderbal constituency. Both the constituencies fall in central Kashmir.

Senior PDP leader and Pulwama legislator Waheed Para said that the result in Budgam was a referendum on the policies of the Abdullah-led government in Jammu and Kashmir.

“If the chief minister loses his own constituency, it is a message to the government that even with 50 MLAs you have not addressed the genuine issues of the people. There is a complete vacuum. This government has failed on governance and development fronts,” Para said.

Para said that the election result has sent out a “clear message” that the power ultimately lay with the people.

The MLA-elect Muntazir, who had shaped his campaign around the alleged failures of the Abdullah government, said after being declared victorious that people had voted for “accountability and change”.

“The Budgam constituency will now be represented effectively in the assembly,” he said.

The ruling National Conference was propelled to victory in the 2024 assembly election with its election manifesto promising a slew of measures to restore the political and economic dignity of Jammu and Kashmir post 2019 while addressing the burning issues of unemployment and high power tariffs.

The erstwhile state was bifurcated and downgraded into two Union territories on August 5, 2019. Even though the assembly election was conducted last year, the Union government has retained the control of higher bureaucracy and law and order in the Union territory.

The NC had entered the Budgam bypolls as a divided house with the Srinagar parliamentarian Ruhullah who had led the campaign for Abdullah in the 2024 assembly election staying away from the election this time.

The Srinagar parliamentarian and three-time MLA from Budgam has targeted Abdullah, who has been portrayed as the “arrogant” chief minister for failing to deliver on the promises made by the party in its election manifesto.

This allegation has been echoed by other leaders of the party including Mian Altaf Larvi, the Lok Sabha member from Anantnag-Rajouri constituency and senior party leader along with former J&K minister Shamima Firdous.

After the Budgam result was declared, Ruhullah, while quoting the Quran and without mentioning the chief minister, posted on social media: “Lesson: Arrogance is the recipe for disaster. Consciousness, Humility and introspection is the way”.

Meanwhile, the BJP’s Devyani Rana won from Nagrota assembly constituency by polling 24,647 votes more than the NPP’s Harsh Dev Singh. The NC’s Shamim Begum came third with 10872 votes.

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