Boycott of the urban local body elections by the National Conference (NC) and PDP came as a blessing in disguise for the BJP which on Saturday won the municipal elections in four of the terrorism hit districts of South Kashmir, where the party has hardly any political base.

Held after 13 years, the elections had turned into a virtual contest directly between the BJP and Congress on most seats because of poll boycott by the regional parties.

But the BJP suffered a major setback in the Ladakh region where the Congress swept all 13 seats of the municipal committee. The Congress also won five seats in the Kargil municipal committee while eight seats have gone to independents. The Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) of Leh had slipped out of the hands of BJP in the election last month.

Counting of votes of the 79 municipal bodies across the state was held today. Polling for these institutions were held in 4-phases but only 35.1 percent votes out of the total electorate of about 17 lakh were cast. A total of 3372 nominations were filed for 1145 wards. Of the 598 wards in Kashmir, 231 candidates were elected unopposed, while there were no candidates in 181 wards.

Winning 97 wards of municipal bodies in Kashmir has come as a shot in the arm for BJP that suffered setbacks in its stronghold of the Jammu region where the Congress, Panthers Party and independents won several seats that were earlier represented by BJP activists.

“The BJP recaptured the prestigious Jammu Municipal Corporation by winning 43 of the 75 seats and also secured majority in 14 municipal bodies of the Jammu region,” said Ram Madhav, BJP general secretary and in-charge of party affairs in J-K.

In a tweet he said the BJP has won 97 wards in Kashmir valley for the first time.

Electorate of the Ladakh region was apparently disappointed with the BJP for not having taken any steps to meet its electoral promise of granting union territory status to the cold desert region.

BJP had for the first time won the Lok Sabha seat of Ladakh in the last election. Results from many other places were yet to come.

In the terrorism hit district of Anantnag, the Congress won 20 of the 25 seats of the municipal council.

The low voting percentage in Srinagar was reflected in the victory of a BJP candidate, Bashir Ahmad Mir, in the Bagh-e-Mehtab (ward 74) of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) where he was declared won by getting 8 of the total 9 votes that were polled.

Congress candidate Nazia won the election for the ward 16 of the SMC where only 56 votes were polled and BJP got 7 votes.

The BJP and Congress shared the control of municipal bodies in South Kashmir where the latter also won the election for the Qazigund and Pahalgam municipal committees. The Congress bagged 14 of the 17 seats of the Dooru municipal committee of Anantnag district. The area is considered a stronghold of the PCC chief GA Mir. The party also won the Kokernag, Bandipura and Hajin municipal committees.

Independents swept the election for the Ganderbal municipal committee while the Congress bagged 8 and BJP and independents shared 5 and 2 seats respectively in North Kashmir’s Baramulla municipal council.

BJP emerged as the single largest party in all six municipal bodies of the Kathua district where out of the total number of 80 wards, the BJP won 34, Congress 19 and independents 27. Independents bagged 10, Congress 2 and BJP 1 seat in the Kishtwar municipal committee. Congress won the Banihal municipal committee.

The elections have come as revival of the Panthers Party in the Udhampur district of Jammu where it managed to bag a couple of seats.