Srinagar: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won its first seat in Jammu and Kashmir after its Doda assembly candidate Mehraj Malik defeated BJP’s Gajay Singh Rana on Tuesday.
Malik, who joined the AAP in 2013, won the Doda seat by 4538 votes winning 23228 votes while BJP's candidate secured 18690 votes. NC's Khalid Najib Suharwardy could win 13334 votes. In the last assembly election, the Doda seat was won by the BJP.
Malik, who won the District Development Council (DDC) polls in J&K in 2020, is known for his strong criticism of the administration under the Lieutenant Governor.
AAP first win in J&K
This is AAP's first seat in J&K Assembly. Now, they have members in the legislative assemblies of J&K, Goa, and Gujarat and governments in Delhi and Punjab.
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Speaking after registering his victory, Malik said: "The mandate belongs to the people. This is people's victory. Congratulations to the people, because we are just a medium who couldn't stand to see the suffering of the public. We wanted to fight for people, it was not our personal fight."
Kejriwal congratulates Malik
AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal also congratulated Malik on a video call.
Though National Conference-Congress have a pre-poll alliance, they decided to have 'friendly fight' in five seats and Doda seat was one of them.
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The National Conference-Congress alliance is set to form the government as the alliance has won 47 seats in 90-member Jammu and Kashmir assembly while NC is leading on one seat, as per the Election Commission of India data.
Polls held in 3 phases
The assembly polls for the 90 seats were held in three phases between September 18 and October 1 after a gap of 10 years.
In 90-member assembly, 46 is majority mark to form the government.
