The ruling National Conference in Jammu and Kashmir on Friday won three Rajya Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir, while the Bharatiya Janata Party bagged the fourth seat.

The polling for the four Rajya Sabha seats from the Union Territory, which have been vacant since 2021, took place earlier in the day. These were the first Rajya Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370, which granted it special status, in 2019.

The National Conference’s winning candidates were Chowdhary Mohammad Ramzan, Sajad Kichloo and Shammi Oberoi.

However, the party’s fourth candidate Imran Nabi Dar lost to the BJP’s Sat Sharma by 10 votes, PTI reported.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah congratulated the winning candidates of his party.

“I wish them well as they begin a new innings representing the people of J&K in the Parliament of India,” Abdullah said on social media.

Sharma thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior members of the BJP for declaring him as a candidate.

Omar Abdullah alleges irregularities

Abdullah said that his “heart goes out” to Dar who despite the party’s best efforts was “let down” at the last moment.

In a subsequent social media post he alleged that four MLAs from parties that had promised support to National Conference “deliberately invalidated their votes by marking a wrong preference number”.

“Do they have the guts to put their hands up and own up to helping the BJP after promising us their votes,” Abdullah asked. “What pressure or inducement helped them make this choice? Let’s see if any of the BJP’s secret team own up to selling their souls!”

He claimed that there was no cross-voting from any of his party’s MLAs, citing the election agent at the polling booth.

The BJP has 28 members in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, but its candidate won 32 votes, PTI reported.

Earlier on Thursday, both the People’s Democratic Party and Congress had pledged support to National Conference’s candidates.

However, Mehbooba Mufti, the chief of the People’s Democratic Party had specified her party would only extend support to three out the National Conference’s four candidates.

All four seats in the Rajya Sabha had been vacant after the expiration of the term of the sitting members in 2021 because there was no Legislative Assembly in the Union Territory at the time.

The retired members were Mir Mohammad Fayaz, Shamsher Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Nazir Ahmed Laway.

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