Scripting history, Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Mehraj Malik defeated BJP’s Gajay Singh Rana by 4,538 votes on Tuesday (October 8, 2024) to win the Doda seat in the Jammu Kashmir Assembly elections. With this win, the Delhi-based AAP has made its electoral entry into its fifth State/Union Territory in India. Currently AAP has MLAs in Delhi, Punjab, Goa, Gujarat and now Jammu-Kashmir.
Congratulating Mr. Malik, AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal posted on X (formerly Twitter), “Many congratulations to Aam Aadmi Party candidate Mehraj Malik from Doda for winning a landslide victory by defeating BJP. You fought a very good election. Congratulations to the entire Aam Aadmi Party getting an MLA in the fifth State”.
In its final tally, Mr. Malik, a District Development Council (DDC) member, polled 23,228 votes while Mr. Rana got 18, 690 votes. NC’s Khalid Najib Suharwardy finished third with 13,334 votes.
Doda, which falls in the Jammu region under Udhampur constituency, was considered a favourable seat for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) due to its large Hindu population. Kicking off the party’s J&K campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a massive rally in Doda on September 14, becoming the first PM to visit the region in 42 years.
Targetting the NC-Congress and the PDP, Mr. Modi had pitched the poll battle in J&K as ‘dynasts vs youth with aspirations’. He accused the Opposition of promoting separatism and terrorism, both of which he assured are in the last stages. The saffron party has done exceedingly well in both Haryana and J&K polls – retaining Haryana for a third time and making major inroads into India’s only Muslim-majority state (now Union territory)
AAP makes inroads into J&K
Similarly, AAP has also been attempting to make inroads into J&K since 2022. Raising the issue of ‘targetted killings’ and the long-pending return of Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley, Mr. Kejriwal held a ‘Jan Aakrosh Rally’ in Delhi to demand accountability from the BJP-led Centre.
“The BJP can’t handle Kashmir, they only know how to do dirty politics. Please don’t do politics over Kashmir,” said Mr. Kejriwal, on June 5, 2022.
Jammu and Kashmir election results 2024: Constituency-wise trends, leads and wins
A month later, most leaders of Jammu and Kashmir People’s Movement (JKPM) joined AAP, with the Kejriwal-led party claiming it a ‘merger’. With the exit of its founder Shah Faesal, only a handful of members remain in JKPM. While AAP had planned a targetted campaign in J&K for the Assembly polls, Mr. Kejriwal’s prolonged incarceration in the Delhi excise policy case foiled it. Nevertheless, AAP fielded seven candidates in the 90-seat Assembly.
J&K results
Ushering in Omar Abdullah’s second term as Chief Minister, Jammu-Kashmir awarded NC 42 seats, its ally Congress six seats, while BJP won 29 seats. With seven independent candidates winning, PDP finished a distant fifth with mere three seats. These polls mark the first to be held since 2014, when the BJP and PDP allied to form a shaky coalition. Since the revocation of J&K’s special status, it had been split into two Union Territories (UT). While J&K has a 90-seat Legislative Assembly, Ladakh has none, and both UTs are headed by a Lieutenant-Governor.
