Budgam: The National Conference (NC) suffered its first-ever electoral defeat in the Budgam assembly segment of Jammu and Kashmir, with opposition PDP candidate Aga Syed Muntazir wresting the seat in the bypolls. Muntazir’s win raises the PDP’s tally in the J&K Legislative Assembly to four.
This marks the NC’s first loss in its Budgam stronghold—central Kashmir’s Shia-majority constituency—since 1957, when the first assembly elections were held. The only other time the party did not hold the seat was in 1972, when it boycotted the polls.
The bypoll was necessitated after Chief Minister Omar Abdullah vacated the Budgam seat, having also won from Ganderbal in last year’s assembly elections. Before Abdullah, the seat was held for three consecutive terms (2002, 2008, 2014) by NC’s current Srinagar MP Aga Ruhullah Mehdi, who did not contest the 2024 elections after entering Parliament.
Ruhullah, now at odds with the NC leadership over issues including J&K’s reservation policy and the party’s stance on the restoration of Article 370, stayed away from campaigning and did not back the NC candidate Aga Mehmood, his relative—an absence widely seen as a key factor in the party’s defeat.
In a last-minute push, Chief Minister Abdullah camped in Budgam for three days, joined by cabinet ministers, MLAs and senior NC leaders, to bolster support for Mehmood. The PDP, meanwhile, mounted an aggressive campaign led by party president Mehbooba Mufti, supported by MLAs Waheed Para, Mohammad Fayaz and Mohammad Rafiq Naik.
Muntazir, son of prominent cleric and former separatist Aga Syed Hassan, holds a postgraduate degree in law from Amity University, New Delhi. A member of the influential Aga family, he joined mainstream politics in August 2024 after entering the PDP. In last year’s assembly elections, he lost to Abdullah by over 18,000 votes—Abdullah securing 36,010 votes to Muntazir’s 17,525.
The Budgam bypoll was widely viewed as a key test for Chief Minister Abdullah’s government and his party’s standing in the region.
