Omar Abdullah retains family stronghold Ganderbal, resigns from Budgam assembly segment in J-K

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has vacated the Budgam assembly seat and chosen to retain the Ganderbal constituency, Pro-tem speaker Mubarak Gul announced in the House on Monday. Abdullah won both the seats in the recently held assembly elections.

Ganderbal constituency has been a bastion of the Abdullah family with NC founder Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah and incumbent president Farooq Abdullah having represented the constituency several times. The 54-year-old Abdullah was an MLA from Ganderbal from 2009 to 2014 during his first tenure as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir.

Omar Abdullah won from Ganderbal, Budgam

Omar Abdullah won the Ganderbal constituency in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly election, defeating People's Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Bashir Ahmad Mir by over 10,000 votes. As per the Election Commission, he secured 32,727 votes, winning by a margin of 10,574 against his nearest rival Mir who polled 22,153 votes.

Abdullah had also scripted victory in the Assembly elections in Budgam, one of the two constituencies he contested in the Jammu and Kashmir elections. As per the updates from the Election Commission, Abdullah defeated Aga Syed Muntazir Mehdi of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), his nearest rival, by a margin of 18,359 votes.

Omar Abdullah was declared the winner from the Budgam constituency after the conclusion of 13 rounds of counting. With just one round of counting to go, Abdullah secured 32,344 votes which was 16,294 more than Mehdi's 16,050 votes.

Strength of NC in J-K Assembly

With this, the strength of the National Conference in the 95-member house has been reduced to 41 but the party still enjoys a comfortable majority with the support of six Congress MLAs, five Independents and one MLA each of the AAP and the CPI(M).

(With PTI inputs)