Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah has vacated the Budgam assembly seat and decided 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.
The Ganderbal constituency has been a bastion of the Abdullah family with NC founder Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah (1977) and incumbent president Farooq Abdullah (1983, 1987 and 1996) having represented the constituency several times. The 54-year-old Abdullah was an MLA from Ganderbal from 2008 to 2014 during his first tenure as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir. Earlier, Omar lost the 2002 Jammu and Kashmir Assembly election in 2002 from Ganderbal when he was defeated by Qazi Mohammad Afzal of Peoples Democratic Party by 2,870 votes.
Omar Abdullah won from Ganderbal and Budgam in 2024 polls
Omar Abdullah won the Ganderbal constituency in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly election 2024, defeating Peoples 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 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), his nearest rival, by a margin of 18,485 votes.
Omar Abdullah was declared the winner from the Budgam constituency after the conclusion of 13 rounds of counting. He secured 36,010 votes against Mehdi's 17,525 votes.
Strength of National Conference in Jammu and Kashmir Assembly
With this, the strength of the National Conference in the 95-member house (Five members to be nominated by the Jammu and Kashmir Governor) 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 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the CPI(M).
(With PTI inputs)
Also Read: Omar Abdullah takes oath as member of Jammu and Kashmir Assembly in Kashmiri language
Also Read: Farooq Abdullah condemns Ganderbal terror attack, says 'Kashmir Pakistan nahi banega'
