Congress's Dismal Show In Jammu and Kashmir: A Post-Election Analysis

This has been Congress's poorest performance in the last nine assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, writes Mohd. Ashraf Ganie.

Jammu:In the Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections held after ten years the Congress and the National Conference (NC) contested in alliance. While NC won 42 seats, the Congress party could only win six out of the 37 seats it contested. This included one seat from the Jammu division and five from the Kashmir division. This has been Congress's poorest performance in the last nine assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

In the 1996 elections, the party had won seven seats. In the election this year, the Congress vote share has also decreased compared to the 12 seats it secured in 2014. Although Congress managed to win five seats in Kashmir compared to four last time, it only secured one seat in the Jammu division.

In the 2014 assembly elections, Congress had fielded candidates for 86 out of 87 seats, including four seats from Ladakh. The party won three seats from Nubra, Leh, and Kargil. However, due to Ladakh becoming a separate Union Territory, these four seats are no longer part of Jammu and Kashmir. In that election, Congress won four seats in Kashmir—Sopore, Bandipora, Devsar, and Shangus—and five seats in the Jammu division, including Inderwal, Banihal, Gulabgarh, Gool Arnas, and Surankote.

Congress secured a total of 867,883 votes in 2014, making up 18.01% of the total votes. However, in the 2024 assembly elections, the party could only secure 682,666 votes, bringing its vote share down to 11.97%. This time, Congress formed an alliance with NC on the promise to defeat the BJP. Congress contested 32 seats, and the two parties had a friendly contest on five seats.

Congress won five seats from the Kashmir division this time. These include Irfan Hafeez Lone from Waagora-Kreeri, Nizamuddin from Bandipora, state president Tariq Hamid Karra from Central Shalteng, Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed from Anantnag, and former state president Ghulam Ahmad Mir from Dooru.

In the Jammu region, Congress only won the Rajouri seat, where Iftikhar Ahmed emerged victorious. However, Congress lost the Banihal seat, which had been won by former state president Vikar Rasool Wani in 2014. Congress also lost the Surankote seat, which it had won in 2014.

Here is the number of seats Congress won in Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections over the years:

2024: 6 seats

2014: 12 seats

2008: 17 seats

1996: 7 seats

1987: 26 seats

1983: 26 seats

1977: 11 seats

1972: 58 seats

1967: 61 seats

Both the National Conference and Congress had fielded candidates for five seats, including Banihal. In the 2014 elections, Congress’s former state president Vikar Rasool Wani won this seat. However, no agreement could be reached between the two parties on this seat during the alliance negotiations finally Congress candidate Vikar Rasool Wani lost with 6110 votes, NC's Sajjad Shaheen won the seat with 33,128 votes, while Congress’s Vikar Rasool Wani came in third with 20,458 votes, facing defeat.

Congress former Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand was defeated by independent candidate Satish Sharma in Chhamb and JKPCC working president Raman Bhalla On RS Pura South seat was defeated by a BJP candidate.

Two-time former MP Choudhary Lal Singh in Basohli was defeated by a BJP candidate with a margin of 16034 Votes, former minister Manohar Lal Sharma was defeated in Billawar by BJP candidate with margin of 21368 votes, Former Minister Yogesh Sawhney in Jammu East, former Minister Mula Ram in Marh, and former Minister Mohammed Shabir Khan in Thanamandi lost the elections as well.