PDP leaders and former MLAs Mohammad Sartaj Madni and Mehboob Beg, Mehbooba Mufti's daughter Iltija Mufti, Hurriyat leader's son Aga Syed Muntazir Mehdi, and Awami Ittehad Party candidate from Tral, Harbaksh Singh are some key candidates who could not win the polls in J&K.
Results for the Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections were declared on Tuesday, October 8, paving the way for the third straight Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in the former and the first elected government in J&K since the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian constitution which stripped the erstwhile state off its special status in 2019 and turned it into a union territory.
In Jammu and Kashmir, the National Conference (NC) emerged the single largest party with 42 seats and its alliance partner Congress helped it hit the majority mark of 46 by bagging six seats, with five of those in the Kashmir valley. Meanwhile, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] managed to secure the single seat allotted to it under the seat-sharing agreement.
In Haryana, BJP bagged 48 seats, two more than the required majority mark, while Congress came second with 37 wins. Among prominent candidates who won included Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini (Ladwa), Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda (Garhi Sampla-Kiloi), BJP's Anil Vij (Ambala Cantt), Shruti Choudhry (Tosham), INLD's Arjun Chautala (Rania) and Aditya Devi Lal (Dabwali), Congress' Vinesh Phogat (Julana), Aditya Surjewala (Kaithal), Geeta Bhukkal (Jhajjar), BJP's Arti Singh Rao (Ateli) and Independent candidate Savitri Jindal (Hisar).
Among the key winners in the J&K Assembly elections was NC vice president Omar Abdullah, who won from both the seats he contested—Ganderbal and Budgam. J&K Congress president Tariq Hamid Karra, PDP youth president Waheed Para, and BJP leader Devender Rana were also among the winning candidates.
However, many key candidates and bigwigs, including former ministers, lost the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana.
Among the prominent names who lost the polls are former minister and ex-JKPCC president Vaqar Rasool, J&K BJP president Ravinder Raina, former minister and JKPCC working president Raman Bhalla, and former ministers Altaf Bukhari, Usman Majid, Chowdhary Lal Singh, Manohar Lal Sharma, Chowdhary Zulfiqar Ali, Harsh Dev Singh, Ghulam Nabi Lone, Ghulam Hassan Mir, Chowdhary Mohammad Ramzan, and Asiea Naqash.
Ghulam Mohammad Saroori, Hakeem Mohammad Yaseen, Sajad Kichloo, Nasir Aslam Wani, Imran Ansari, Mula Ram, Zahoor Mir, Mohammad Ashraf Mir, Taj Mohiuddin, Syed Basharat Bukhari, and Abdul Gaffar Sofi are the other former ministers who lost the election.
PDP leaders and former MLAs Mohammad Sartaj Madni and Mehboob Beg, Mehbooba Mufti's daughter Iltija Mufti, Hurriyat leader's son Aga Syed Muntazir Mehdi, and Awami Ittehad Party candidate from Tral, Harbaksh Singh were the other key candidates who could not win the polls.
Separatist-turned-mainstream politician Sajad Lone won from Handwara, but lost from Kupwara.
BJP candidates Aijaz Ahmad from Lal Chowk and Faqeer Mohammad Khan from Gurez (ST) -- for whom Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh campaigned, respectively, also lost the polls.
Congress leader and former MLA Abdul Rashid Dar, for whom Rahul Gandhi campaigned, also lost from Sopore.
Haryana Congress chief, assembly speaker and a former deputy chief minister were among the prominent leaders who lost their seats in the Haryana assembly polls. Haryana Congress chief Udai Bhan lost the Hodal seat to BJP candidate Harinder Singh, while Haryana Vidhan Sabha speaker Gian Chand Gupta lost the Panchkula seat to Congress's Chander Mohan.
Former Haryana deputy chief minister and Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) leader Dushyant Chautala and Congress party's Brijendra Singh lost from Uchana Kalan seat.
Indian National Lok Dal leader Abhay Singh Chautala and BJP's Bhavya Bishnoi were also among the prominent names who lost.
INLD's Abhay Chautala lost his stronghold Ellenabad assembly segment.
Abhay Chautala and JJP's Dushyant are the grandson and great grandson of former deputy prime minister Devi Lal, respectively.
BJP's Bhavya Bishnoi lost the Adampur assembly segment to Congress candidate Chander Prakash. Bishnoi, the grandson of former chief minister Bhajan Lal, had won the seat in 2022 Adampur bypolls. The seat was previously represented by his father Kuldeep Bishnoi and grandfather Bhajan Lal.
Other key losers were former Haryana BJP chief and BJP's Badli nominee O P Dhankar, former Haryana finance minister and BJP candidate Captain Abhimanyu, INLD's Digvijay Chautala and independent candidate Ranjit Chautala.
Apart from this, eight out of 10 ministers under the Nayab Singh Saini government also lost the elections. They included Aseem Goel, Subhash Sudha and Kanwar Pal.