LC polls: No cross voting, coalition candidates prevail

Srinagar: Putting to rest all the speculations about the cross-voting, the ruling congress and National Conference legislators and its supporters Wednesday ensured that all the five candidates of the alliance tasted victory. While the alliance won on five seats, opposition PDP candidate, as expected clinched the remaining sixth seat.  Official sources told that the National Conference won three seats, Indian National Congress two and PDP one. For three Kashmir seat, Bashir Ahmad Shah, Dharambir Singh and Mohammad Ashraf Mir of PDP were declared victorious.  Bashir Ahmad Shah and Dharambir Singh secured 26 votes each, while Mir of PDP got 25, out of the total 87 votes cast for three seats of Kashmir. Yashpaul Khajuria of Congress and Noor Hussain of NC secured 30 votes each out of the 88 votes cast for twin seats of Jammu. Jahangir Mir of Congress secured 52 votes out of 88 polled votes for Poonch reserved seat.Engineer Abdul Rasheed abstained from the voting, while Ashwani Kumar Sharma, an independent legislator did not cast his vote for Kashmir province seats.The high profile polling started at 10 AM with Syed Bashir Ahmad of PDP casting his first vote and Muzaffar Hussain Baigh casting the last vote at 1.45 PM.Chief Minister Omar Abdullah cast his vote at 10.57 AM while Speaker, Legislative Assembly Mr. Mohammad Akbar Lone at 11.42 a.m.The Secretary, Legislative Assembly Mohammad Ramzan, who was Returning Officer for the polls, announced the results in presence of Chief Electoral Officer B R Sharma in the afternoon.Meanwhile, Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah said that the victory of all coalition candidates in elections vindicates the cohesion and unity between partners. “Both the parties are on same page and complement each other in translating the pledge of Khushaal Jammu and Kashmir in reality,” he said and asserted that the coalition would get further strengthened with the passage of time.The Chief Minister was speaking at an informal meeting of National Conference and Congress stalwarts and winning candidates of the coalition partners in the Government here soon after announcement of the results.Pradesh Congress President, Prof. Saif-ud-Din Soz, Deputy Chief Minister, Tara Chand, Central Congress Observer, Abdul Manan Ansari, various Ministers, Advisors to the Chief Minister, Parliament Members, legislators and others were present in the meeting.Omar Abdullah congratulated the leaders of both National Conference and Congress for working in unison and ensuring smooth victory of coalition candidates in the Legislative Council elections. “I am confident that coalition would also exhibit same spirit and determination in jointly facing the challenges ahead and overcoming the problems in a befitting manner,” he added. (PDP)