Iltija Mufti
Credit: PTI Photo
PDP leader Iltija Mufti, the daughter of former chief minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir who was trailing by more than 3,800 votes after seven rounds of counting, on Tuesday expressed "gratitude" to party workers and said she accepts "the verdict of the people".
The 37-year-old was in the fray from the Srigufwara-Bijbehara seat in her first assembly elections.
At the end of the 12th and final round of counting, Iltija lost to National Conference's Bahir Ahmad Veeri by 9,770 votes.
"I accept the verdict of the people. The love & affection I received from everyone in Bijbehara will always stay with me. Gratitude to my PDP workers who worked so hard throughout this campaign," Iltija Mufti posted on X.
The National Conference-Congress alliance is likely to form government in Jammu and Kashmir with poll trends on Tuesday showing the combine ahead in 48 of the 90 seats while the BJP was leading in 29.
The National Conference has 41 seats and BJP has bagged 28.
PDP has clinched three seats in the Union territory, the People Conference of Sajad Gani Lone got one seat while the Independents managed seven seats.
With the NC ahead of its rivals, party vice president Omar Abdullah said there should be no "fiddling" with the mandate of the people in Jammu and Kashmir.
"Transparency should be there. Whatever happens should be done in a transparent manner. There should be no fiddling with the peoples' mandate. If the mandate of the people is against the BJP, then the BJP should not indulge in any 'jugaad' (machinations) or something else," Abdullah told reporters in Srinagar.
"The Raj Bhavan and the Centre should accept the decision of people the way we did in the Parliamentary polls," Abdullah told reporters there.
At 37, Iltija's bid was seen as a significant test of the Mufti family's influence, as the PDP had held the seat for 28 years. Her mother, Mehbooba, first won the seat in 1996 on a Congress ticket before joining the PDP in 1999, a party founded by by her late father, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who also won the seat in 1967.
(These numbers reflect the count at the time of publishing)
With PTI, DHNS inputs
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