Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, poster boy of the Congress party in Jammu and Kashmir was on Friday pushed inside the 'hall of shame' of the UPA ministers as he suffered a crushing defeat by a Jammu based diabetologist, Dr Jitendra Singh of the BJP in his maiden outing from Udhampur-Doda lok Sabha seat.
Riding high on the pro-Modi wave, State BJP chief Jugal Kishore also scripted momentous history as he trampled two time sitting Congress MP Madan lal Sharma under his feet to touch the highest ever number of popular vote share in the electoral history of the State.
Jugal garnered a record number of 6.19 lakh votes ie 49 per cent of the total votes polled, to romp home victoriously. His nearest rival of the Congress party, Madan lal Sharma came distant second by securing 3.62 lakh votes. PDP's Yashpaul Sharma came third by securing 1.68 lakh votes.
This is PDP's best ever performance in Jammu region in the recent years as its candidate managed to establish lead in two Assembly segments of frontier Poonch district.
Significantly, out of 37 Assembly segments spread over two lok Sabha seats, BJP established a clear lead over 23 seats while, Congress managed to retain its lead only over 12 seats and PDP on two seats.
Though, State BJP Chief Jugal Kishore Sharma defeated his rival by a huge margin of 2.57 lakh votes, yet BJP's Dr Jitendra Singh turned out to be a giant killer.
Fighting the lok Sabha polls for the first time, he administered bitter pill to the Union Health Minister leaving him red faced.
Dr Singh, an elder brother of DS Rana, a close aide of Omar Abdullah and Provincial President of the National Conference, defeated Azad by a margin of over 60,000 votes. Azad polled 4,26,393 votes while Dr Singh secured a total of 4,87,369 votes.
Azad was considered a strong candidate in comparison to Dr Singh but he too failed to save his skin in the wake of saffron surge across Jammu. During the campaign period the alliance leaders including Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and Azad had discounted presence of Modi wave in the State.
Azad also suffered the brunt of poor coordination between the alliance partners on ground zero. This is evident from the division of the vote share in Assembly Constituencies represented by National Conference legislators. Ironically, at many places BJP candidate secured majority votes in areas represented by either the congress or NC legislator.
The only saving grace for the Congress party is that Azad managed to retain his hold in the erstwhile district of Doda comprising six Assembly seats and secured majority vote. His lead margins were, however, neutralised by the high percentage of voting in plain areas of Kathua and Udhampur district.
As the counting began early in the morning, Azad had established an initial lead of over 25,000 votes over his rival BJP candidate. But as the day progressed and pro Modi wave gripped the nation, Azad too started trailing behind after the sixth round of polling. He soon joined the 'hall of shame' of Union Ministers who received drubbing at the hands of rival BJP candidates. In Srinagar, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah accepted the verdict of the people and took responsibility for the defeat of the alliance candidates.
"I accept, unequivocally, the responsibility for this defeat. A lot of introspection and soul searching, personally and professionally, needed", Omar tweeted ahead of addressing a press conference after the debacle. PCC Chief, Prof Saif Ud Din also issued a written statement claiming "It is so tragic that despite our best efforts, the coalition candidates in the State have lost the election to the lok Sabha. It is further unfortunate that a person like G N Azad has also lost the election whom we considered to be best of the candidates and who had served the State best."It is an occasion to congratulate the winners and gracefully accept the verdict of the people", he added.
After the results were formally declared the 'city of temple' erupted in jubilation. Party workers danced to the tunes of drum beats and distributed specially made 'ladoos' among the local people to celebrate their long awaited victory.