PDP reviews poor Lok Sabha polls showing in Kashmir

After a dismal performance in the Lok Sabha elections where it failed to win a single seat, the People’s Democratic Party led by its president Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday held a meeting of its political affairs committee in Srinagar.

Mufti chaired the meeting to review the overall political situation, party affairs and preparations for the upcoming assembly elections.

The party said senior leaders attended the meeting, discussing key issues and strategies to address the current political climate and measure on how to strengthen the party’s position.

Party chief spokesperson Suhail Bukhari said the leaders also discussed the previous and the upcoming elections, adding, “The party functionaries were asked to start preparing for the assembly elections.”

“The meeting mostly discussed the performance of the party in Lok sabha elections and also the situation prevailing in the region. There were suggestions on measures on how to strengthen the party ,” a senior party leader who attended the meeting said.

PDP had fielded candidates in all three seats across Kashmir. The party managed to get 4.35 lakh votes collectively for an 8.4% vote share. The BJP had highest at 24.4% (12.58 lakh), followed by NC with 22.2% votes (11.47 lakh) and the Congress with 19.3% votes (9.98 lakh).

This was the first Lok Sabha election in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019. Compared to previous polls, people in Kashmir voted in large numbers, registering a record 52% turnout in three Lok Sabha seats of the Valley.

The results set the tune for the assembly polls in J&K, a first after abrogation of Article 370, for which the process has been started by the Election commission of India.

Mufti lost her won contest to National Conference’s Mian Altaf in the southern Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat, despite south Kashmir being a party bastion. In the constituency’s Kashmir side (Anantnag), she managed to get the highest votes in only three segments of south Kashmir’s 11 segments.

In Srinagar parliamentary constituency, PDP youth leader Waheed Para lost to NC leader Aga Ruhullah by 1.88 lakh votes. Para managed to get highest votes in only two segments of Pulwama district – Rajpora and Pulwama – out of the total 18 assembly seats in Srinagar.

In north Kashmir’s Baramulla constituency, which was won by independent Engineer Rashid, the PDP candidate didn’t emerge dominant in any of the segments.