Jammu & Kashmir Assembly Election 2024 | Afzal Guru's brother Aijaz Ahmed loses from Sopore

Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru's brother Aijaz Ahmed Guroo, who fought the Jammu and Kashmir polls from Sopore, lost the seat by 26,846 votes. National Conference candidate Irshad Rasool Kar won the election.

Guroo, who had sought to fight the polls on development and employment plank, had said the challenges faced by the assembly segment mirror the broader problems of the Union Territory.

Guroo had been trailing in the counting as of 12 pm and later on NC candidate took a definite and comfortable lead and won the seat with 26, 975 votes.

"The vision of my brother was different and mine is different," he had said while emphasising that his focus is on development rather than separatist ideologies.

Afzal Guru was hanged in Tihar jail on February 9, 2013, for plotting the December 2001 attack on Parliament.

Aijaz Ahmed Guroo, an Independent candidate who did not complete his matriculation, expressed his commitment to upholding the Constitution and addressing the pressing concerns of Sopore. The region has suffered years of neglect, he said.

Guroo had alleged that the influence of the National Conference was responsible for the atmosphere of fear and violence in the area.

Voter turnout in Sopore has historically been low due to militancy with the 2008 assembly elections seeing only 19 per cent participation in the area. Sopore this time though recorded the lowest turnout of 41.44 per cent, but it was far better than the 2014 polls when the seat recorded 30.79 per cent voting, the EC data showed. 

However, the 2024 Lok Sabha polls witnessed significant voter participation with the turnout reaching 45 per cent, a marked improvement from the mere 4 per cent voting in the 2019 general elections.

Sopore voted in the third phase of the elections on October 1.

Haryana Assembly poll 2024 results| Check constituency results here

J&K Assembly poll 2024 results| Check constituency results here

Assembly Elections 2024 | In the first assembly polls since the Lok Sabha elections, Narendra Modi and the BJP face a rejuvenated and vindicated Opposition in the Haryana assembly polls. Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir is voting after almost a decade and it remains to be seen how the abrogation of Article 370 has impacted the political landscape of the Valley. Check live updates and track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analyses only on Deccan Herald.

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