Jammu: Former Deputy Chief Minister and Congress candidate Tara Chand on Tuesday lost his traditional bastion of the Chhamb seat, which was won by rebel independent candidate Satesh Sharma with a margin of 6,929 votes.
The Congress party had won the Chhamb Assembly constituency seven out of the past nine elections since 1962, when party veteran Chajju Ram secured the seat for the first time.
Sharma, aged 42, left the Congress and contested as an independent candidate from the Chhamb assembly segment of Jammu, defeating BJP candidate Rajeev Sharma with a margin of 6,929 votes. Sharma, the son of two-time MP and former Congress Minister Madan Lal Sharma, received 33,985 votes.
Chand, who had won this seat three times earlier, finished third with 16,449 votes.
“It is a victory for the people. It is all up to the people to decide our fate. People can make or break you. I thank the people from the core of my heart,” Sharma told reporters after being declared elected from the seat.
Chand had won the Chhamb seat twice in 2002 and 2008 but lost to the BJP in 2014.
Chand, who served as the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader, deputy chief minister and speaker of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly under the governments of Mufti Sayeed and Omar Abdullah, chose to contest from his traditional Chhamb seat after it was recently de-reserved.
The Chhamb constituency has traditionally been a Congress stronghold. The Congress has won the seat seven times, while the BJP and an independent candidate have each won it once.
Congress’ Chajju Ram won the seat in 1962 and 1967 followed by Madan Lal Sharma in 1983 and 1987, and Tara Chand in 2002 and 2008. Congress’ Devikar Singh secured the seat in 1972, while independent candidate Ram Nath and BJP’s Krishen Lal won in 1977 and 2014, respectively.
