The Aam Aadmi Party's Mehraj Malik - who handed his party a first ever electoral win in Jammu and Kashmir, in local body polls in December 2020 - has now won the Doda legislative seat to give the AAP a first ever Assembly seat in the former state. J&K is holding its first Assembly election in a decade.
The AAP leader finished 4,538 votes ahead of the BJP's Gajay Singh Rana and thumped the National Conference's Khalid Najib Suharwardy by 9,894 after the scheduled 13 rounds of counting.
The Doda seat was won by the BJP's Shakti Raj in the 2014 election, but has traditionally flipped between the National Conference and the Congress since the first poll in 1962.
The AAP's success in J&K comes as a bit of a shock to many, particularly since it has been blanked in Haryana - party boss Arvind Kejriwal's home state. Should the Haryana trend hold - and there is nothing to suggest it will not - it will be a major setback, particularly since the Delhi election is just months away.
READ | AAP's Expansion Plan Hits Haryana Wall, Leads Indicate Zero Seats
The AAP's Haryana loss is also key given it could not agree a seat-share with the Congress, with which it is allied - under the INDIA bloc umbrella - on the national stage.
The AAP and Congress had all but reached an agreement but state leaders from either side vetoed a deal asked for by Rahul Gandhi, who has often spoken of the need for the opposition to stand united.
READ | AAP-Congress Pre-Poll Alliance Failed In Haryana. This Is Why
Back in J&K, Mr Malik is leading in a seat and region that has been roiled by terror attacks over the past several months; as recently as August, in fact, an Army Captain was killed in action in an encounter with terrorists in the Assar area of the district. A civilian was also injured. Security forces also recovered a United States-made assault rifle and three blood-soaked rucksacks with equipment and logistics.
In fact, in July J&K Police launched a major crackdown on entrenched terror networks after a deadly encounter in Doda in which four Army personnel, including another officer, were killed in action.
READ | Major Crackdown Against Terror Network After Doda Encounter
Doda was also where Prime Minister Narendra Modi began the BJP's Jammu and Kashmir election campaign; his visit last month was the first by a sitting Prime Minister in over four decades.
Multi-tier security was deployed across Doda and Kishtwar in preparation for Mr Modi's visit.
The AAP leader's good showing so far is also an outlier in an election that has, so far, been dominated by the National Conference-Congress alliance, which is leading in over 50 of the former state's 90 Assembly seats. The BJP - which has never ruled J&K on its own - is trailing with 27 leads.
Exit polls had given the Congress-NC alliance a slight edge. An aggregate of three indicates the Congress-NC will win 43 seats and the BJP 26, with the PDP winning between four and 12.
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