KL Report
SRINAGAR
After sending its erstwhile MLA and senior PDP leader Tariq Hameed Karra to Lok Sabha in May 2014, political pundits had predicted “loss” to PDP in Srinagar on the condition of not “finding a good replacement.” On Tuesday, Noor Mohd Sheikh of PDP proved the pundits wrong by outnumbering NC’s sitting MLA Mohd Irfan Shah by 4327 votes.
With seventeen candidates in the battle, Batamaloo was in a bilateral contest between PDP and NC. Formerly an NC bastion, PDP’s Karra had scored his debut in Batamaloo in 2004 bye-elections. But in 2008, NC’s Mohammad Irfan Shah defeated Karra by a margin of 2706 votes.
On December 14, Batamaloo had recorded a voting percentage of 24.34
According to the final results, PDP’s Sheikh had secured 12542 votes against Irfan’s 8215 votes. Abdul Qayoom Bhat of Jammu & Kashmir Democratic Party Nationalist (JKDPN) ranked third with 1409 votes while as BJP’s Zubair Nazir Wani tallied at 5th position with 1304 votes.
