Numberspeak | What Connects Srinagar, Baramulla Lok Sabha Seats in J&K with UP’s Mainpuri? Here’s The ‘Missing Link’ – News18

Indian politics is dynamic and when it comes to Lok Sabha elections, particularly in northern India, it is mostly all about the Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress. Yet the Srinagar and Baramulla Lok Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir have not elected any of these parties for more than 25-30 years, making them similar to Uttar Pradesh’s Mainpuri, which voted for the Congress last in the 1984 polls.

While in Mainpuri, it is the Samajwadi Party that has been elected non-stop since 1996, the two Lok Sabha seats in J&K had elected either the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Democratic Party or Jammu & Kashmir National Conference.

The BJP has never been elected from these seats. On the other hand, the Congress was elected from Baramulla and Srinagar last in 1996. The Congress won from Srinagar only once while in Baramulla it managed to win three times since the formation of the Lok Sabha seat.

Mainpuri

In seven Lok Sabha elections and two bypolls held since 1996, the Samajwadi Party had been sweeping the seat. The then party head Mulayam Singh Yadav was elected first in 1996. He was re-elected in 2004, 2009, 2014, and 2019. However, he vacated the seat in 2004 after he became chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, and in 2014, as he was also elected from Azamgarh. In the subsequent bypolls, his party retained the seat.

In Mainpuri, the Congress has won five times only – in 1952, 1962, 1967, 1971, and 1984. In the total 17 Lok Sabha polls held on the seat, members of the Praja Socialist Party (1952), Janata Party (1977, 1991), Janata Dal (1989), and Janata Party (Secular) (1980) were also elected.

Srinagar

For the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat, in the 13 elections the constituency has witnessed since 1967, late Sheikh Abdullah’s founded party Jammu & Kashmir National Conference (NC) has been elected 10 times. His wife, Begum Akbar Jehan, their son Farooq, and later grandson, Omar, were elected from the seat seven times collectively.

The party failed to win the seat only thrice – in 1971, when an independent candidate was elected, in 1996, when the Congress won, and in 2014 when the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won. The BJP fought the 2014 elections in alliance with Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP. While the NC lost the 2014 polls, it managed to get re-elected in the 2017 bypolls after PDP’s Tariq Hamid Karra resigned.

Baramulla

The seat has witnessed 14 Lok Sabha elections since 1957 and the NC has won nine times. The Congress has won from the seat four times – in 1957, 1967, 1971, and 1996. The PDP has been elected from the seat just once.

The three seats will see Lok Sabha elections in different phases. Mainpuri will go for polls on May 7 in the third phase, Srinagar on May 13, and Baramulla on May 20. The counting of the votes will be done on June 4.

Check Lok Sabha Election 2024 Phase 3 Schedule, Key Candidates And Constituencies At News18 Website.