J&K Election Results 2024 LIVE: Cong-NC Hit Majority Mark With 51 Seats In Early Trends, BJP Ahead In 29

As per early trends, the Congress-National Conference (NC) alliance have crossed the majority mark of 46 with leads on 50 seats, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is on 28 seats and the PDP on four.

JKNC's Eidgah Assembly constituency candidate Mubarak Gul said, "National Conference will win the elections. People made up their minds to bring the National Conference into power. I am hopeful that we will win more seats than predicted in the exit polls."

The Congress and National Conference alliance has touched the majority mark with 48 seats, while the BJP is leading in 26 seats.

PDP is ahead in 8 seats, while others are in 2.

JKNC vice president and party's candidate from Ganderbal and Budgam, Omar Abdullah said, "We have the hope that we will win. The decision made by the voters of J&K, we will get to know by today afternoon. There should be transparency...if people's mandate is against BJP, they shouldn't pull off any tricks...we did alliance so we can win and we are hoping to win."

Awami Ittehad Party and MP Engineer Rashid said, "Power is not a permanent thing...Jammu and Kashmir is not an ordinary state. On one side there is Pakistan, on the other side there is China. The world is watching us. Let the people of Kashmir live and give them their rights."

"External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar should not go to Islamabad just for a tour. He should not deceive the world that I went to the Shanghai conference. He should do something good behind the scenes for the peace of Kashmir...I urge that whatever government is formed in Jammu and Kashmir, it should act as a bridge between the people of Jammu and Kashmir and New Delhi so that our troubles end," Rashid added.

As early trends come in, the Congress-National Conference alliance take the lead with 24 seats, with the BJP following at a close second with 19 seats.

Does this mean that the Cong-NC alliance will make a comeback and form the government? Or will it be a hung Assembly? Stay tuned to find out.

As J&K awaits the results of the Assembly elections, the prospects of a National Conference-Congress government appear promising, if both parties can secure around 50 seats combined. National Conference (NC) insiders say Omar Abdullah, vice president of the party, will lead the coalition and be the next Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir.

“We gave our best, presented our manifesto, and made people aware of the importance of their vote. We are confident that the people responded positively and came out to vote for the NC-Congress alliance,” says NC senior leader Tanveer Sadiq.

Read the full report here.

In the early trends, the BJP and Congress-National Conference alliance are running neck-on-neck with 19 seats each. Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is at 5 seats, while others are at 2.

"I myself am not contesting the election; we fielded some Independent candidates. My request is that whichever party forms the government should listen to the people and works on real issues - autonomy, resolution to Kashmir issue, human rights, governance, nepotism and corruption," Independent MP Engineer Rasheed told news agency PTI.

The Bharatiya Janata Party is leading in the early trends with 13 seats, while the Congress-National Conference alliance is following on a close second with 8 seats.

Notably, the postal ballots are being counted first.

The counting of votes is underway, with the postal ballots being counted first. As per the early trends, the BJP and Congress-National Conference alliance are in close lead -- BJP at 7 and Cong-NC at 6.

"At SKICC we have arranged eight halls for counting for eight Assembly segments. Thirteen rounds of counting will be done. All arrangements have been made," said Srinagar Deputy Commissioner Bilal Mohi-ud-din Bhat.

The counting of votes has begun amid tightened security measures in Jammu and Kashmir, with this the early trends will start coming in a while.

BJP national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari exuded confidence in his party and said that the J&K assembly poll results will show that people want a pro-development government.

Asserting his stance, Bhandari said, "The BJP-led coalition will win the assembly elections of J&K...Without representation from Jammu, the government will not be formed."

Security arrangements have been tightened at Ramban's district administrative complex ahead of the vote-counting.

BJP's J&K President and party candidate from Nowshera, Ravinder Raina, expressed full faith in his party and its alliance partners, and the Independent candidates, saying that they will together form the government in Jammu and Kashmir.

"The BJP will win 30-35 seats and about 15 Independent candidates and other candidates from alliance parties are likely to win," Raina said.

Congress leader Ghulam Ahmad Mir said that as per local trends his party is receiving from Anantnag and Kashmir, "the results would be in favour of Congress-NC alliance and other like-minded parties".

"However, these are early trends, this will get more clear with time. BJP has no scope to form the government," Mir told news agency PTI.

Security has been beefed up at Jammu's government Polytechnic College counting centre ahead of the vote-counting process today.

Congress' J&K unit leader Suhail Bukhari said, "We are hoping that the INDIA alliance will perform good. I am saying this very confidently that we will get good numbers, and the BJP will be wiped off. However, we should wait for some more time and then I will be able to talk in detail."

Ahead of the counting of votes, J&K BJP President and party's Nowshera candidate Ravinder Raina performed 'havan' in Jammu.

In view of the vote-counting process, security measures have been tightened at the Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC).

The vote-counting process for both J&K and Haryana will take place simultaneously today at 8 am.

While Jammu and Kashmir had voted in three phases -- September 18, 25 and October 1. Haryana had voted in a single phase on October 5.

You can track the Haryana poll results with Outlook India here: Haryana Election Results 2024 LIVE

In the 2014 Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, Peoples Democratic party (JKPDP) emerged as the single-largest party with 28 seats, closely followed by the Bharatiya Janata Party with 25 seats. This lead to the formation of a coalition government under Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. Following his death, Mehbooba Mufti took charge as the Chief Minister but, she resigned in 2018 after the BJP withdrew from the coalition.

The National Conference (JKNC) bagged 15 seats in the 2014 polls, while the Congress won 12 seats.

Some of the prominent candidates in the fray in Jammu and Kashmir are:

• Ravinder Raina (BJP, Nowshera)

• Choudhary Lal Singh (Congress, Basohli)

• Sham Lal Sharma (BJP, Jammu North)

• Raman Bhalla (Congress, RS Pura - Jammu South)

• Jugal Kishore Sharma (Independent - Shri Mata Vaishno Devi)

• Pawan Khajuria (Independent, Udhampur East)

• Usman Majid (Bandipora)

• Nazir Ahmad Khan (Gurez)

• Taj Mohiuddin (Uri)

Pollsters projected on Saturday that the Congress-National Conference alliance would sweep the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections.

The halfway mark of the 90-seat assembly is 24 and pollsters including India Today-CVoter, People's Pulse, Republic-Gulistan and Dainik Bhaskar predicted that the BJP might secure 27-30 seats whereas the alliance might be able to win an average of 40-50 seats.

PDP may bag around 5-10 seats, while other parties will get to around 101-2 seats in the Union Territory.

Jammu and Kashmir is set to get its first elected government following the abrogation of Article 370 five years ago, a move by the central government that turned J&K from a state to a union territory, stripping it off its special status.

Hello readers! Welcome to Outlook India's live coverage of the vote counting and results for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections 2024. We bring you real-time updates on the seat-wise tallies, winning candidates and more.

The counting of votes for the J&K elections is set to begin at 8 am.