Mehbooba defeated her nearest rival Hilal Ahmad Shah of Congress by a margin of 12,085 votes. Mehbooba polled 17,701 votes while Shah got 5,616 votes. National Conference candidate Iftikhar Hussain Misger finished third with 2,811 votes.
The Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP-BJP alliance received the first stamp of approval from the people when the chief minister won the assembly bypoll from the Anantnag constituency with a record margin.
Mehbooba defeated her nearest rival Hilal Ahmad Shah of Congress by a margin of 12,085 votes. Mehbooba polled 17,701 votes while Shah got 5,616 votes. National Conference candidate Iftikhar Hussain Misger finished third with 2,811 votes.
What made Mehbooba's victory sweeter was the margin of votes. Her father late Mufti Mohommad Sayeed had defeated Shah by 6,000 votes from the same constituency in 2014 assembly polls.
"I am thankful to the people especially women, young and old, that they have reposed faith in me like the way they trusted Mufti Sahab. I pray to Allah to give me strength so that I can live up to the expectations of the people," said Mehbooba.
The June 22 byelection in the Anantnag assembly was necessitated with the demise of Mufti Mohommad Sayeed on January 7. Under the Constitution, byelections have to be held within the six months after the demise of the sitting MLA.
Mehbooba, who is also People's Democratic Party's Lok Sabha member from Anantnag constituency, was trying her luck for the first time from Anantnag assembly segment which was represented by her late father twice.
With the victory in Anantnag, Mehbooba has maintained her record of not losing any election from her traditional bastion of south Kashmir either for the Assembly or Parliament. She, however, has lost once to National Conference leader Omar Abdullah in 1999 when she contested against him from the Srinagar parliamentary seat.
Mehbooba's victory, however, was marred by the allegations of rigging and tampering with the EVMs by the opposition parties. Congress candidate Hilal Shah alleged that the EVMS were tampered with and the signatures were not matching on the machines.
"All the EVMs were unsealed. The signatures we had done in the polling booths were not matching with the machines. These were totally different machines," said Shah.
The Congress candidate later gave a written complaint to the returning officer about the alleged malpractices in the elections. "We have given written complaint to the returning officer. Deputy commissioner threatened to send people behind bars when the agents protested against the malpractices. Now, we will be knocking the doors of the court because the results were nothing but fraud and cheating," said Shah.
Deputy commissioner Anantnag Syed Abid Rashid Shah denied the allegations saying the protestors created ruckus and tried to damage to the EVMs.
"We had it (EVMs) elaborately checked. There was no tampering. EVMs cannot be tampered with unless it is visible. They created a commotion. I told them to behave because they tried to damage the EVMs also. They created huge ruckus," he told dna.
The results also sparked twitter war between PDP and the National Conference. "Thanks to the whole administration, free government ration & when that didn't work the tampered EVM's. Congratulations!" tweeted Tanvir Sadiq, senior NC leader and close aide of former chief minister Omar Abdullah.
PDP was quick to hit back with `grapes are sour' jibe to silence Sadiq. "Typical 'Grapes are sour'. You ignored Anantnag for six decades hence people ditched your party long back", tweeted the PDP.
Allegations and counter allegations apart, celebrations broke out in Anantnag after Mehbooba won the polls. PDP workers burst crackers and took out a victory march outside the counting hall shouting slogans in favour of Mehbooba and the party.
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