Jammu, Udhampur: BJP candidates win third time in a row

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday accomplished an enviable record-breaking performance as its candidates from Jammu and Udhampur parliamentary constituencies scored their winning hat-trick in general elections-2024.

Besides, the party also scored the highest vote share in J&K i.e., 24.36 percent; ahead of NC (22.30 percent) and Congress (19.38 percent).

BJP candidate from Jammu Lok Sabha seat, Jugal Kishore Sharma defeated his nearest Congress rival Raman Bhalla by 1,35,498 votes. Sharma polled 6,87,588 votes (677571 EVM votes and 10017 postal votes) with 52.8 percent vote share.

Bhalla bagged 5,52,090 votes (546031 EVM votes and 6059 postal votes) with 32.4 percent vote share.

In Udhampur parliamentary constituency also, Congress candidate Chowdhary Lal Singh lost to BJP nominee Dr Jitendra Singh by a margin of 1,24,373 votes.

Dr Jitendra Singh got 5,71,076 votes (566833 EVM votes and 4243 postal votes) with 51.28 percent vote share while Chowdhary Lal Singh polled 4,46,703 votes (444151 EVM votes and 2552 postal votes) with 40.11 percent vote share

As compared to 2019, victory margin, in case of both Dr Jitendra Singh and Jugal Kishore Sharma, however, has reduced.

In 2019, Jugal Kishore from Jammu-Poonch parliamentary seat had defeated same opponent i.e., the Congress candidate Raman Bhalla with a margin of 3,02,875 votes while Dr Jitendra Singh had annexed Udhampur-Kathua-Doda LS seat by defeating his nearest rival Congress candidate Vikramaditya Singh by a margin of 3.57 lakh votes.

In the case of Dr Jitendra, the victory margin was among ten highest margins registered across the country in 2019.

For both Jugal and Dr Jitendra, 2019 was an improved performance. In 2014, Dr Jitendra had earned sobriquet of “giant-killer” after defeating the former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, (then) a Congress candidate with a margin of 62,000 votes.

Similarly, Jugal had won the Jammu seat in 2014 with a victory margin of 2.57 lakh votes against Congress’ Madan Lal Sharma.

The feat of scoring hat-trick from Udhampur seat was also accomplished by veteran Congress leader Dr Karan Singh in 1971, 1977 and 1980.

Before scoring hat-trick as an MP, Jugal, a dedicated RSS worker, had also served as an MLA from Nagrota twice. He also worked as J&K BJP president.

Dr Jitendra, a medico by profession, rose to prominence during Shri Amarnath land row in 2008. After he became an MP for the first time in 2014, he was made the Union Minister of State in PMO. He retained this charge with additional crucial ministries (independent charge) during his second tenure as well, beginning from 2019.

JAMMU ELECTORAL FRAY

In all, there were 22 candidates, including Jugal and Bhalla, in the electoral fray for the Jammu parliamentary constituency.

Among other candidates Jagdish Raj of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) polled 10300 votes; Satish Poonchi (independent) got 5959 votes; Ankur Sharma of Ekam Sanatan Bharat Dal 4278 votes; Naresh Kumar Chib of Jammu & Kashmir National Panthers Party (Bhim) 4243 votes; Principal C D Sharma (independent) 3257 votes; Karanjit (independent) 3207 votes; Shaber Ahmed (independent) 3177 votes; Shikha Bandral of National Awami United Party 2937 votes; Dr Prince Raina (independent) 2866 votes; Raj Kumar (independent) 2618 votes; Surinder Singh (independent) 2226 votes; Atul Raina (independent) 2068 votes;  Rattan Lal of Jammu & Kashmir People Conference polled 1651 votes; Swami Divya Nand of Jammu and Kashmir Nationalist People’s Front 1620 votes; Perseen Singh (independent) 1589 votes; Naresh Kumar Talla (independent) 1459 votes; Ganesh Choudhary of Hindustan Shakti Sena 1190 votes; Vicky Kumar Dogra (independent) 1165 votes; Bansi Lal (independent) 1059 votes and Qari Zaheer Abbas Bhatti of All Indian Forward Bloc polled 984 votes. All these candidates forfeited their security deposits as they could not secure minimum one-sixth of the total valid votes polled.

For the Jammu LS seat, 4645 voters chose NOTA (None Of The Above) option. A total of 13.02 lakh voters had exercised the right of franchise in this parliamentary constituency.

CONTEST IN UDHAMPUR

For Udhampur-Kathua-Doda parliamentary constituency, there were twelve candidates, including Dr Jitendra Singh and Chowdhary Lal Singh, in the fray.

Besides BJP and Congress nominees, G M Saroori of Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) bagged 39599 votes (39519 EVM votes and 80 postal votes) with 3.56 vote share; Mehraj Din (independent) 9082 votes; Amit Kumar of Bahujan Samaj Party 8642 votes; Mohd Ali Gulzar (independent) 7158 votes; Manoj Kumar of Ekam Sanatan Bharat Dal 6834 votes; Balwan Singh of Jammu & Kashmir National Panthers Party (Bhim) 3292 votes; Swarn Veer Singh Jaral (independent) 3088 votes; Dr Pankaj Sharma (independent) 2247 votes; Rajesh Manchanda (independent) 1605 votes and Sachin Gupta (independent) bagged 1463 votes. All these ten candidates too forfeited their security deposits.

In this constituency, 12938 voted for NOTA. 11.13 lakh voters had exercised their franchise in this parliamentary constituency.

Earlier this morning, the counting in the case of Jammu parliamentary constituency at Government Polytechnic College Bikram Chowk ( for 11 assembly segments) and MAM College Jammu (for 7 assembly segments) while in case of Udhampur-Kathua-Doda parliamentary constituency, at Government Degree College ( for all 18 assembly segments), began under three-tier security cover. Extensive CCTV surveillance was in place in and around the counting centres, besides the arrangements of videography.

Special counting centres had been set up for counting of migrant votes as well at GCW, Gandhinagar, Jammu and GGHSS, Udhampur.

As Section 144 was in force, no celebratory processions were allowed inside the counting centre. The bursting of crackers was also strictly banned within counting centre premises.

Notably, Jugal Kishore maintained a lead over his political opponent Raman Bhalla throughout the vote-count; Dr Jitendra Singh trailed behind Congress candidate Chowdhary Lal Singh in initial rounds. However, soon he overcame initial hiccups and managed a steady lead which continued till the declaration of results.

CELEBRATIONS ERUPT

Inside the counting Centre at Government Polytechnic College, Bikram Chowk, the media centre throughout the day remained abuzz with the activities of scribes, photojournalists. Journalists shared the space with the government employees, who were on election (counting) duties and were waiting for calls (from the counting hall), watching trends on TV and giant screens.

Entry to the counting hall was restricted. Arrangements for breakfast, lunch were made inside the premises.

The workers of different political parties, mainly Congress and BJP were also present in good strength. Besides other candidates, while BJP candidate (Jugal) visited the counting centre a number of times and responded to media queries, Congress candidate was conspicuous by his absence.

As soon as the trends demonstrated BJP lead, the majority of journalists and party (BJP) workers left for BJP office, where special arrangements were made to watch election results on giant screens.

Celebrations erupted at the party office at Trikuta Nagar and at several places as party workers and leaders danced to the beats of drums and distributed sweets. Victory processions too were taken out in different parts of the parliamentary constituency.

Later in the evening, when the result was to be announced, the party leaders led by J&K BJP president Ravinder Raina and accompanied by Jugal reached there, amid victory slogans. Outside the Government Polytechnic College, Bikram Chowk, they interacted with the media also