NC, PDP win two seats each in Pulwama

Srinagar : The People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which won all four seats in Pulwama during the 2014 elections, has secured only two seats this time, while the National Conference (NC) emerged victorious in two seats of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.
PDP’s Waheed Ur Rehman Para and Rafiq Ahmad Naik won the Pulwama and Tral seats, respectively. NC’s Hasnain Masoodi and Gh Mohiudin Mir won the Pampore and Rajpora seats.
In Pulwama, Waheed Ur Rehman Para received 24,716 votes, defeating his nearest rival, Mohammad Khalil Bandh, who garnered 16,568 votes, resulting in a victory margin of 8,148 votes.
In Tral, Rafiq Ahmad Naik secured 10,522 votes, narrowly defeating Surinder Singh Channi of the Indian National Congress (INC), who received 10,107 votes, with a margin of just 415 votes. Gh Nabi Bhat, an independent candidate, received 9,654 votes.
In Pampore, Hasnain Masoodi, a former MP, won with a lead of 2,763 votes, receiving 15,088 votes against former minister Zahoor Ahmad Mir, who secured 12,335 votes.
In Rajpora, NC’s Gh Mohiudin Mir garnered 25,627 votes, defeating Syed Bashir of PDP, who received 11,314 votes, resulting in a victory margin of 14,313 votes.
In the previous election in 2014, all four seats in south Kashmir’s Pulwama were won by the PDP, with candidates including Mohammad Khalil Bandh, Haseeb Drabu, Zahoor Ahmad Mir and Mushtaq Ahmad Shah.
Both Mohammad Khalil Bandh and Zahoor Ahmad Mir and his father had represented Pulwama and Pampore seats consecutively since 2002 and both were ministers in the PDP government, however, Bandh later switched to NC but he failed to secure a seat for the fourth consecutive time.
In Zainapora, NC’s Showkat Hussain Ganie received 28,251 votes, defeating independent candidate Aijaz Ahmad Mir, who secured 15,018 votes, with a margin of over 13,000 votes.
In Shopian, Shabir Ahmad Kullay, running as an independent after being denied a ticket by NC, won with 14,113 votes against NC’s Sheikh Mohammed Rafi, who received 12,906 votes, with a margin of 1,207 votes. In 2014, both Shopian seats were won by the PDP