Lok Sabha polls: How two independent candidates rose to win parliamentary seats in J&K and Ladakh

It was all surprises and setbacks in the Lok Sabha Election 2024 results in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.Jammu and Kashmir recorded 58 per cent voting, breakinglast forty years' voter turnout record. It also came as a shock and a big setback for two former chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, who lost the electionby a huge margin.

While Mehbooba Mufti lost to National Conferences leader Mian Altaf by a margin of over 2.8 lac votes, the bigger shock and unexpected result was Omar Abdullah losing to Jailed Independent Candidate Engineer Rashid. He took the lead with over two lac votes and leftOmar Abdullah far behind.

Sheikh Abdul Rashid also known as Engineer Rashid has been a former MLA from the Langate assembly seat of North Kashmir's Kupwara district. Engineer won the assembly seat twice in a row and headed a party with the nameAwami Ittehad Party. Engineer has been languishing in the Jail since 2019. He is booked by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in a terror funding case and has been lodged in Tihar Jail in Delhi. He is the first mainstream politician to be arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

At the time when Engineer was an elected MLA from the Langate assembly seat, he wasconsidered a separatist sympathiser.

Meanwhile, Omar Abdullah conceded his defeat on social media to Engineer on the day of election results after trailing by a huge margin.

''I think it’s time to accept the inevitable. Congratulations to Engineer Rashid for his victory in North Kashmir. I don’t believe his victory will hasten his release from prison nor will the people of North Kashmir get the representation they have a right to, but the voters have spoken and in a democracy that’s all that matters," he said on X.

Omar also took to social media today and shared a quote from a story thatread, ''Rashid’s victory, without doubt, will empower secessionists, and give Kashmir’s defeated Islamist movement a renewed sense of hope. Efforts to draw secessionism back into electoral politics led New Delhi to support the rise of the People’s Democratic Party, and its alliance with the BJP. That, however, ended up empowering violent secessionists, not mainstreaming them—a warning of the unpredictable outcomes of trying to manipulate politics.”

Although these were not Omar Abdullah's words, sharing them on social media today meant nothing but the endorsement of the same thoughts.

Another Surprise was Independent Candidate Haji Haneefa Jan, who won the Ladakh Parliamentary seat. Haji was associated with the National Conference earlier and was the district president of the same party in Ladakh. He decided to go solo in this parliamentary election as the INDIA alliance fielded Namgyal as their candidate. The Kargil Unit of the National Conference had resigned en masse after Namgyal was fielded as their candidate.

In 2023, Haneefa lost the Kargil Elections for the Barro Constituency in the LAHDC Kargil by a mere 66 votes. And after Omar Abdullah decided to field a different candidate from the Ladakh seat, Haji decided to quit and fight solo.

Earlier, we had also witnessed how Environmentalist and Educationist Sonam Wangchuk had demanded statehood forLadakh for which he had done a 21-day long hunger strike and also asked to bring UT under the Sixth Schedule of article 244 of the Indian Constitution, facilitating the creation of autonomous district council to give ladakhis legislative, judicial and administrative powers. It is said that all these incidents together played a major role in Haji's win.

Omar Abdullah took to social media and congratulated his former member Haji for the victory. '' I’m really very happy for you today. A few months ago, you tasted defeat in the hill council elections & now you will represent Ladakh, especially the marginalised people of Kargil in the Lok Sabha. Your victory cost @JKNC_ its Kargil unit but it was well worth the price," said theNational Conference party chief.

Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh have six seats in total out of which two have been won by Independents, while two in the Kashmir region have been won by NC leaders and two in the Jammu region have been retained by the BJP.