J-K elections: Did Vaishno Devi constituency repeat Ayodhya fate for BJP?

Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Assembly constituency falls in the Reasi district of Jammu division. It had entered into the poll in the second phase of the Assembly elections on September 25

Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Assembly constituency in Jammu-Kashmir, which entered its inaugural poll, elected Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Baldev Raj Sharma as its first MLA, the data on the Election Commission’s website showed on Tuesday. Sharma defeated his nearest rival, independent candidate Jugal Kishore by a margin of 1,995 votes.

After a total of eight rounds of counting of votes, the EC website showed that Sharma had gotten a total of 18,199 votes. The outcome of this seat was particularly important for the BJP as Shri Mata Vaishno Devi is one of the most significant pilgrim sites for Hindus.

The Congress had named Bhupinder Singh from this seat, who got a total of 5,655 votes.

The constituency falls in the Reasi district of Jammu division. It entered into the poll in the second phase of the Assembly elections on September 25 and recorded the overall highest voting percentage at 75.29 in that phase.

The saffron party was expecting an easy win from this seat since the Narendra Modi government strongly emphasises promoting Hindu cultural heritage, which deeply resonates with supporters of Hindu nationalism in India.

Notably, during the Lok Sabha elections in June, the BJP had expected a similar outcome in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya, home to Ram Mandir, but faced embarrassment after the Samajwadi Party's Awadesh Prasad won the Faizabad seat. Ayodhya falls under Faizabad.

Overall, the National Conference-Congress party alliance appears to be winning the Jammu-Kashmir Assembly elections, the first since the erstwhile state was bifurcated into two union territories: Jammu-Kashmir and Ladakh.

The NC has won 29 seats and is leading on another 12, while the Congress has won four seats and is leading at two.