Chenab Valley region of Udhampur parliamentary constituency has not been able to give the support that the Congress candidate Choudhary Lal Singh was expecting to get which contributed to his loss to Bharatiya Janta Party’s Dr. Jitendra Singh.
Out of the total 45566 votes polled in eight Assembly segments of Chenab valley comprising three districts of Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban, Lal Singh was able to get 218503 votes.
According to the news agency-Kashmir News Observer (KNO), the Congress candidate was able to get 47.73 percent of total votes polled in Chenab valley whereas the BJP candidate got 175158, which is 38.26 percent of the total votes polled.
Some close aides of Choudhary Lal Singh told KNO that they were expecting to get over 60 percent of total votes polled in Chenab valley and getting just over 47 percent has shattered them and it has become a major reason for their loss. “During our conversation after the results, Lal Singh was quite disturbed about the overall results and particularly about Chenab valley from where he was expecting popular support,” he said.
Both congress and BJP got leads on four seats each in Chenab valley. Lal Singh got leads in Inderwal, Doda, Bhaderwah and Banihal Assembly segments whereas Jitendra Singh got leads in Kishtwar, Padder-Nagseni, Doda West and Ramban seats. The only positive for Lal Singh was Banihal and Doda Assembly segments from where he got the lead of 37820 and 19486, respectively.
The leads in Bhaderwah and Inderwal were marginal and overall Chenab valley couldn’t do well for him.
Sources in BJP told KNO that the results in Chenab valley have been encouraging for the party as they have got a handful of Muslim votes as well besides sweeping Hindu votes.
Meanwhile, Democratic Progressive Azad party (DPAP) candidate Ghulam Muhammad Saroori has also got over 34 thousand votes in Chenab valley but he didn’t get a lead in any of the eight Assembly segments. Even in his own backyard Inderwal, from where he has remained a three-time MLA, he remained at number three– (KNO)