The National Conference on Friday won three Rajya Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir, while the BJP managed to win one.
NC’s Chowdry Mohammad Ramzan was declared the winner of the first seat, while Sajad Kichloo managed to win the second, as part of the party’s declaration.
Kichloo contested the seat against BJP’s Rakesh Mahajan.
Its third winner was GS Oberoi who is also known as Shammi Oberoi. He is also NC Treasurer.
Sat Sharma, who is a BJP member, won the fourth seat by securing 32 votes. NC candidate for the same seat Imran Nabi Dar got 22 votes.
‘Pakoras’ and ‘chai’ kept NC in a crucial meeting with allies
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah held a last-minute strategic meeting on arithmetic for the Rajya Sabha elections with his party leaders at the J&K Assembly complex on Friday and there was a regular supply of ‘pakoras’ and ‘chai’ to keep it going, he said in a social media post.
Sharing pictures from his office during the meeting, Abdullah said, “Behind the scenes in my office in the assembly complex as we work out the arithmetic and strategy for the Rajya Sabha polls,” adding, “Sustenance comes from the regular delivery of paneer and onion pakodas and canteen chai.”
NC and PDP have also sent triple whips to their MLAs to ensure their presence during the polls.
Both PDP and Congress have announced that they will support NC candidates in the elections.
This was the first Rajya Sabha election in Jammu and Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370. The Union Territory was left without a representative in the Upper House of Parliament from 15 February 2021 after Nazir Ahmed Laway and Ghulam Nabi Azad completed their terms.
Two other RS members from J&K, Fayaz Ahmed Mir and Shamsheer Singh Manhas, completed their tenure on 10 February 2021.
Omar Abdullah disappointed with a cross vote
Omar Abdullah also expressed his disappointment over the cross-voting that may have helped the BJP win one seat from J&K. In a post on social media, he said, “All the votes of @JKNC_ remained intact during the four elections as witnessed by our election agent who saw every ballot,” adding, “None of our MLAs cross-voted, so questions arise – where did the 4 extra BJP votes come from? Who were the MLAs who deliberately invalidated their votes by marking their votes as invalid by yours votes for bad. hands up and admit to helping BJP after promising us their votes? What pressure or incentives helped them to make this choice? Let’s see if any of the BJP secret team will confess to selling their souls!”
