The BJP has retained its three Lok Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir, while the National Conference has won two seats in the Kashmir region and is leading in one, leaving Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP stunned as it could not open its account.

National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah and Union minister Jitendra Singh were among the prominent faces to make it to the 17th Lok Sabha from the state which sends six MPs to the lower house.

The biggest electoral upset in the state was witnessed in Anantnag where former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti finished third. The seat has been won by National Conference candidate and former High Court judge Hasnain Masoodi whose nearest rival was Ghulam Ahmad Mir of the Congress.

According to the Election Commission website, while Masoodi polled 40,180 votes, Mir got 33,504 and Mufti got 30,524 votes.

In the Udhampur seat of Jammu region, BJP’s Jitendra Singh won by 3.57 lakh votes defeating Congress’ Vikramaditya Singh, the son of Jammu and Kashmir’s last prince Karan Singh.

As per officials it is the highest margin of victory for any successful candidate in J&K till now. Singh got 61.38 per cent votes.

He had defeated former Union Minister and Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad in 2014.

The BJP’s Jugal Kishore defeated Raman Bhalla of the Congress by 3,02,875 votes on the Jammu seat.

The party’s J T Namgyal won the Ladakh seat defeating Independent candidate and journalist-turned-politician Sajjad Hussain by over 10,000 votes. Rebel Congress candidate spoiled the game for the grand old party and Hussain by so far bagging 29,000 votes.

For the NC, 83-year-old Abdullah got 1,06,750 votes and defeated Aga Syed Mohsin of the PDP by 70,050 votes in the Srinagar constituency. This will be Abdullah’s fourth term in the Lok Sabha, having been a member in 1980, 2009 and 2017 previously.

The Congress is set to draw a blank in the state even though the National Conference and the PDP had not fielded candidates for Jammu and Udhampur seats in order to consolidate anti-BJP vote.

Nearly 8000 opt for NOTA in Baramulla

In the Baramulla constituency, the most-keenly contested seat in Kashmir region both in terms of candidates and people’s participation, NC candidate Mohammad Akbar Lone is leading by over 30,000 votes.

About 8000 voters opted for the none of the above (NOTA) button in elections to the Baramulla Parliamentary constituency of Jammu and Kashmir which was won by National Conference’s Mohammad Akbar Lone.

"In Baramulla constituency of north Kashmir, 7999 voters pressed the NOTA button," an election official said.

He said NOTA secured 1.79 per cent of the total votes polled in the constituency.

The NOTA secured more votes than four of the nine candidates who were in the fray in the constituency, the official said.

In Udhampur constituency of Jammu region, 7472 voters pressed the NOTA button — more than what seven candidates contesting the seat polled, the official said.

He said the Jammu parliamentary seat polled 2545 NOTA votes — more than 14 candidates in a total of 24 contestants.

Similarly, the official said, in Srinagar constituency, 1566 voters chose NOTA. It was higher than five of the 12 candidates in the fray.

In Ladakh constituency, 910 voters pressed the NOTA button on the EVMs, while the lowest NOTA vote share was recorded in the restive south Kashmir’s Anantnag constituency which registered 709 NOTA votes — higher than the vote share of nine candidates, the official said.

The former Assembly speaker is followed by Raja Aijaz Ali of the People’s Conference and Independent candidate Sheikh Abdul Rashid. PDP candidate Abdul Qayoom Wani stands a distant third.

In 2014, the BJP had won three seats -- two in the Jammu reagin and the Ladakh seat -- while the PDP had swept all three seats in the Valley.

However, Abdullah had won the Lok Sabha bypoll to the Srinagar seat in 2017.

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