Kashmir: Independent Candidates Win DDC Polls in Drugmulla and Hajin
A woman casts her vote for the first phase of the District Development Council (DDC) elections, at Gund in Ganderbal district of central Kashmir. Image Courtesy: PTI
Srinagar: Two independent candidates were declared winners on Thursday of the two seats of District Development Candidate (DDC) elections held in Drugmulla and Hajin constituencies earlier this week.
Independent candidate Advocate Aamina Majeed was declared the winner of DDC polls at Drugmulla constituency in North Kashmir’s Kupwara district whilst another independent candidate Nazah was declared winner of the Hajin constituency in Bandipora district of North Kashmir.
As many as 3,259 votes were secured by the winning candidate Aamina, who witnessed a close challenge from People’s Conference candidate Shabnam Rehman, who also managed 3,220 votes but was 40 votes shy to gain the first spot.
Nazah was also followed by another PC candidate Atiqa Begum, who secured 2283 votes. Another independent candidate Abida Afzal secured 2,241 votes. The BJP candidate Kulsuma was relegated to the fourth spot with 387 votes. Nazah, who managed a victory by 423 votes, was backed by the Apni Party.
“We thank the people of Hajin Bandipora for a historic win. The people of Bandipora have endorsed the pro people agenda of Apni Party,” the party tweeted.
Of the total 10,675 votes polled at Drugmulla in the re-elections held earlier on Monday, Apni Party candidate Hameeda Begum secured 1,474 votes declaring the Altaf Bukhari-led party as the second runner-up in the contest.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Shakeela Akhter secured only 877 votes and Shabroz Hassan of the Congress party managed only 746 votes. There were other independent candidates in the fray including Rifat Jan who managed 612 votes, Rafiqa Bano with 123, Hafeeza Begum with 62, Gulshan Begum with 34 and Saima Begum with only 28 votes. As many as 240 votes were declared as invalid.
The DDC polls were held in the union territory in December 2020. The polls in these two DDC constituencies, however, were again held after the election commission in the wake of “disputed” citizenship of two candidates Somiya Sadaf and Shazia Aslam. The state election commission (SEC) declared the polling in these constituencies as void as the two candidates in respective constituencies were of Pakistani origin.
Drugmulla witnessed an overall voter turnout of 32.73% whilst Hajin recorded a voter turnout of 53%. The Drugmulla DDC constituency is spread over 42 polling stations with 32,000 voters, out of which 5,624 male and 5,109 female voters exercised their franchise. The DDC constituency Hajin had 28 polling station with 16,000 thousand eligible voters, out which 8,690 cast their vote.
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