Magic of 28 in Jammu and Kashmir
National Conference secured bagged 28 seats twice – in 2002 and 2008 – and now PDP has emerged as the largest party with the same figure
Since 2002 assembly elections, the single largest party in Jammu and Kashmir gets 28 seats. The National Conferene, which was humbled in 2002 elections, secured 28 seats, though being the largest party, it chose to sit in opposition. Six years later, it again got 28 seats in 2008. But this time formed government in alliance with the Congress, which had secured 17 seats. Now in 2014, the PDP emerged as the single largest party, but with same magic number of 28.
The BJP, which showed a spectacular performance, failed to send more than one Muslim nominee to assembly. The BJP had fielded 34 Muslim candidates in the state out of the 74 candidates in the assembly having the strength of 87 seats. However, except Abdul Ghani Kohli from Kalakote in Rajouri district, all other Muslim candidates of the party had to bite dust as most of them forfeited their deposits. Abdul Ghani Kohli of BJP has been declared winner in Kala Kote seat as he defeated Rachhpal Singh of National Conference with over six thousand votes. Rachhpal Singh had been winning this constituency for last two elections. Kalakote assembly seat, which was carved out to give representation to the far-flung areas of the state in the assembly in 1996, was twice bagged by National Conference and once by Congress. Rachpal Singh of National Conference and Ashok Kumar Sharma, who fought on the Congress ticket have dominated politics of this seat.
The BJP's gamble of fielding Muslim candidate from this seat paid dividends as the Kalakote assembly constituency has Hindu and Muslim voters in almost equal proportion. By fielding a Muslim candidate, the BJP was able to wean away some Muslim voters which in combination of the BJP's Hindu voters ensure win for Abdul Ghani Kohli.
The Muslim support to Abdul Ghani Kohli seems to have ensured an increase of around five thousand votes from the 2014 General Elections, when the BJP had secured only around 20 thousand votes.
Abdul Ghani Kohli is the second Muslim MLA from the saffron party since independence. Earlier, Sheikh Abdul Rehman was elected from Jammu East seat on Bharatiya Jan Sangh ticket in 1972.