PDP wins Budgam assembly bypoll
JAMMU: The BJP retained the Nagrota assembly constituency after its 30-year-old 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.
Devyani Rana, who has been leading from the beginning, secured 42,350 votes, defeating 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. As the news of her victory spread, Rana received a rousing reception from BJP workers at the counting centre complex.
Rana, who was garlanded on her arrival at the centre, said she thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president J P Nadda and other party leaders for depositing faith in her. “My victory goes to all the voters who cast their votes in my favour and to the party leadership for the confidence they have shown in me,” she told reporters here.
On the bypoll outcome, she said, “We are deeply grateful for the warm welcome we received, just as every household and family in Nagrota had blessed Rana Sahab in 2024. Today, people have extended their blessings to us with the same love and support. We dedicate this victory to Rana Sahab as a mark of respect. We wish to serve the people just as he did.”
Meanwhile, Opposition PDP candidate Aga Syed Muntazir on Friday won the Budgam assembly bypoll in Jammu and Kashmir, defeating ruling National Conference (NC) candidate Aga Syed Mehmood by a margin of nearly 4,500 votes.
This is the first time that the NC has lost in its bastion of Budgam, in central Kashmir, since 1957, the first elections for the legislative assembly.
According to the data on the ECI website, Muntazir secured 21,576 votes against Mehmood’s 17,098 at the end of the counting of votes. The BJP candidate Aga Syed Mohsin stood a distant sixth with just 2,619 votes.
