Srinagar, June 8: In a significant electoral shift, the latest parliamentary polls in Jammu and Kashmir have witnessed the Congress and National Conference (NC) increasing their combined vote share while the BJP has seen a dip in its vote percentage across the union territory.
As per the final tallies, the NC and Congress, part of the opposition INDIA alliance, garnered an impressive 41.6% of the total votes polled in the crucial Lok Sabha elections. In contrast, the BJP along with its allies Apni Party and People’s Conference (PC), who were pitted against the INDIA bloc, managed to secure 31.7% of the vote share.
The high-stakes polls saw a total of 51.59 lakh voters exercising their franchise across J&K. Of these, the NC and Congress candidates received an overwhelming 21.45 lakh votes, while the combined vote tally for the BJP, Apni Party, and PC stood at 16.4 lakh.
Despite the BJP retaining its two parliamentary seats in the Jammu region, the right-wing party has witnessed a decline in its overall vote share compared to previous elections. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had secured a 32.6% vote share while winning both Jammu seats.
The electoral dynamics appeared to have further shifted in the 2019 general elections when the voter turnout in J&K was recorded at 49.3%. The BJP not only retained its Jammu strongholds but also opened its account in Ladakh. Its vote share surged to 46.7% that year.
However, the latest parliamentary contest has bucked that trend, with the Congress and NC, buoyed by a united opposition front, making significant inroads and denting the BJP’s established vote banks.
In the recent polls, the BJP did not field candidates in three Lok Sabha constituencies. Both Apni Party and DPAP performed poorly, with their candidates forfeiting their security deposits. The Congress did not win any seats, but its vote share has increased from 28.6% in 2019. The NC, which won all three seats in the 2019 parliamentary polls, had a vote share of 7.9% and the vote share of NC and Congress in the recent polls increased to 41.6 percent.
With the Parliamentary elections concluded political parties are now shifting their focus to the upcoming Assembly elections to further increase their vote share. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has initiated the process for holding Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, inviting applications for the allotment of common symbols from registered unrecognized parties. In December 2023, the Supreme Court directed the ECI to hold Assembly polls in the Union Territory by September 30, 2024.
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