The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which made a determined bid to score its first poll victory in the Kashmir Valley, not only drew a blank but suffered the ignominy of seeing all but one of its 34 candidates lose their security deposits.
The BJP had fielded candidates in 34 of the 46 constituencies in the Valley in the keenly fought Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir results of which were declared today. Moti Koul, BJP’s candidate from Habba Kadal in Srinagar district, was the only one who managed to save his deposit by polling 2,596 votes in the constituency which recorded only 21 per cent voter turnout.
Koul was also under the threat of losing his security deposit till the migrant votes were counted, which propelled him from seventh position to the runners-up. He lost to Shamima Firdous of National Conference(NC) by a margin of over 2,000 votes. The remaining BJP candidates were way behind in most of the constituencies in the Valley, Election Commission data showed.