Mehbooba wins Anantnag bypoll

Amid allegations of rigging by opposition parties, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday won the Anantnag assembly by-poll.

She defeated her nearest rival Hilal Ahmad Shah of Congress by a margin of over 12,000 votes.

Of 28,500 polled votes, Mehbooba secured 17,701 votes, while Shah secured 5,616. National Conference (NC) candidate Iftikhar Misger stood a distant third with 2,811 votes.

The PDP’s winning margin has considerably gone up in Anantnag despite NC and Congress cornering Mehbooba for allying with the BJP for the second time after her father and former chief minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed died in January this year.

In 2014 elections, late Mufti had defeated Shah by 6,000 votes and the margin doubled this year with 12,085.

However, the NC and Congress said that electronic voting machines (EVMs) were tampered. “A lot of EVMs in Anantnag were without mandatory seals/locks. Electoral staff says since teachers were incharge, their inexperience is the reason,” NC spokesman Junaid Azim Mattu said.