Huge victory margin for 14 of 25 winning BJP candidates

Srinagar, Dec 24: BJP, which emerged as the second largest party in Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections, may have drawn a blank in Kashmir and Ladakh regions but 14 of its 25 winning candidates in the Jammu region scored emphatic victories over their nearest rivals.

Sat Pal Sharma, who won from Jammu-West Assembly segment, has the highest margin of victory as he defeated Congress candidate Surinder Singh Shingari by 50,629 votes.

Thirteen other BJP candidates had a winning margin of more than 10,000 votes over their nearest rival -- a feat achieved by only three non-BJP winners in the 87-member Legislative Assembly.

The second largest margin of victory was registered by BJP's Kuldeep Raj from Hira Nagar constituency as he won by 39,284 votes. Bali Bhagat won from Raipur-Domana seat by a margin of over 32,000 votes. D K Manyal from Samba won by 22,118 votes while Dina Nath won from Chenani by 20,332 votes.

The other BJP candidates who won by a margin of more than 10,000 votes are Lal Singh (Basohli), N K Singh (Billawar), R S Pathania (Ram Nagar), Kavinder Gupta (Gandhi Nagar), Krishan Lal (Chamb), Gagan Bhagat (R S Pura), Chander Prakash (Vijaypur), Sukhnandan (Marh) and Rajesh Gupta (Jammu East).

The high margin of victory for BJP candidates stands out against rest of the parties in the state as only three candidates from other parties could win by over 10,000 votes. Congress MLA from Inderwal Ghulam Mohammad Saroori won by 12,370 votes while his party colleague from Kargil Asgar Ali Karbalaie won by 10,505 votes. Indepedent candidate from Udhampur Pawan Kumar Gupta won by a margin of 14,650 votes.

PTI