Devyani Rana of the BJP has won the assembly bypoll held for the Nagrota constituency of Jammu district. Her victory with a thumping margin of over 24,000 votes has led to the BJP having 29 MLAs in the Jammu & Kashmir assembly now, same as it had when the results were declared last year on October 8, 2024. Some time later, Devyani’s father D S Rana left this world and the seat had fallen vacant. It is a tribute to Devyani’s commitment and grit that she went out among the voters of Nagrota within a fortnight of her father’s death and thanked them by touring it widely.
After the result was declared, a beaming Devyani talked to the media and said that like her father who treated every voter of Nagrota as a family member, she will maintain an open door policy for everyone. People irrespective of caste, age, gender and such other considerations, could approach her in case of any difficulty and she will try her best to support them. The new MLA-elect will soon be touring Nagrota constituency again for thanksgiving as she has set up exacting standards for herself, some of people close to her said.
In the Budgam bypoll, Aga Muntzir of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) emerged winner defeating his National Conference (NC) rival Aga Syed Mehmood with around 4,500 votes. The election result was decided by NC MP Aga Ruhullah who did not campaign for the party candidate, sending a clear message to the voters. He forbade the NC to not use his pictures on election posters and took a stance against the party’s line on most issues. He criticised Chief Minister Omar Abdullah as also other leaders of his party for what he called their failure on Article 370 restoration, statehood for Jammu & Kashmir and reservations in jobs that are now in vogue in the Union Territory (UT).
Devyani’s extensive and repeated tours of Nagrota over the last one year helped her connect with the voters as also strengthened her claim as her father’s successor. Over a month ago, there were some discordant notes regarding her candidature as supporters of Nand Kishore, brother of sitting BJP MP from Jammu, Jugal Kishore, raised a banner of revolt. However, most senior BJP leaders rushed to Nagrota to placate them and it has ultimately proved to be a storm in the tea cup. No more.
In the final count, Devyani Rana got 42,183 votes as against runner-up Harsh Dev Singh who could get only 17,161 votes. Shamim Begum, the candidate of the ruling National Conference (NC), stood third in the contest and got a little over 10,800 votes. A BJP rebel candidate Anil Sharma, who was also in the field, did not dent Devyani’s support much and was not among the first three candidates. Late D S Rana had a good connect with his voters and had won easily in 2014 Legislative Assembly elections on NC ticket, despite the Narendra Modi wave riding on which the BJP had formed a government at the Centre.
A decade later, Rana won on a BJP ticket in 2024 assembly elections as he had parted company with the NC some years before that. His daughter Devyani is the second female MLA in the BJP, the first being Shagun Parihar who had won the Kishtwar assembly constituency last year. Shagun had proved to be a giant killer as she defeated Sajjad Kichloo, whose family had dominated Kishtwar for decades. For NC, Sajjad is so important to maintain party’s hold in erstwhile Doda (Kishtwar, Doda and Ramban districts) that the NC leadership has now sent him to Rajya Sabha.
In the Budgam bypoll, the ruling NC seems to be on backfoot from the very beginning as its bête noire (in the past) People’s Democratic Party (PDP) nominee surged ahead as counting started. Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Aga Syed Muntazir led by over 3,300 votes over his nearest rival, NC candidate Aga Syed Mehmood, after 10 rounds. The BJP has also contested the bypoll but its candidate Aga Syed Mohsin was a distant seventh when the result was declared finally.
In all, there were 17 candidates in the fray in Budgam assembly constituency and together they scored more than the PDP and the NC candidates. The candidate who stood third in the contest, an independent named Jibran Dar, score 7,154 votes. This alone was more than the margin of victory for 4,000. Together, the 15 candidates who were runners-up got more than 24,000 votes.
The Budgam bypoll result shows that the NC MP Aga Ruhullah, who was not in favour of the NC candidate, has emerged as a challenger within the party, being able to hold his own against the Abdullahs. In the last week of October, while addressing a gathering, which was attended by Mian Altaf, another Lok Sabha MP, he had thrown a gauntlet to Omar Abdullah. Without naming Omar, Aga Ruhullah said that if the elections are won on the strength of party’s name alone, the first result in favour of NC should have come from Baramullah. He was reminding the audience that NC’s virtual numero uno Omar should have not sailed through but with a massive margin too.
At this gathering, Mian Altaf was also seated in the front row and listened to Aga Ruhallah as he spoke. Incidentally, Aga Ruhullah has emerged as a second leader within the NC which can stand up to Abdullahs, the first being Mian Altaf. It needs to be mentioned here that Mian’s son, Mian Mehar Ali, became the fourth generation legislator from his family, winning the Kangan assembly seat in October 2024. From 1957 till 2025, no family member of the Mian family, spiritual leaders who command a vast following among Gujjar-Bakerwal tribes, has lost an election. Whether they have contested from the Congress or on NC ticket.
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