National Conference President Farooq Abdullah has retained his Srinagar-Budgam Lok Sabha seat with a comfortable margin of several thousand votes.
Even though the counting of votes was still on, but Abdullah had crossed the winning margin when this report was being filed.
As per the latest figures, Abdullah was leading with 101330 votes while his nearest rival of PDP had 35788 votes.
In 2009, Farooq Abdullah had emerged victorious in this seat by defeating the JKPDP candidate by a margin of 30,242 votes which was 10.69% of the total votes polled. JKN had a vote share of 51.99% in 2019, in the constituency. There were 15 contestants in 2009.
This is the fourth win in a Lok Sabha election for the 83-year-old three time former chief minister, who has so far lost an election only once in his 42-year political career since his debut in 1980.
Abdullah was first elected as member of Lok Sabha in 1980. However, he returned to state politics in the wake of failing health of his father and National Conference leader Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah in 1981.
He succeeded as chief minister of the state in September 1982 following his father’s death.
Abdullah won in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls but lost to PDP candidate Tariq Hamid Karra in the 2014 elections.
However, he won the 2017 by-polls to the Lok Sabha after Karra resigned from the PDP as well the Lok Sabha in 2016.