New Delhi: The BJP and National Conference have equally divided Jammu and Kashmir’s six seats between themselves, completely shutting out the Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party.While stalwarts like BJP’s Jitendra Singh and Farooq Abdullah of National Conference easily won their seats, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti had to bite the dust.By Thursday noon, early leads by Congress and independents had dissipated, while BJP’s margins remained steady and kept being added. By afternoon, BJP had an insurmountable margin in Jammu and Udhampur.By 10 pm, three seats were declared, which included two for national conference and one for BJPUnion minister and BJP leader Jitendra Singh retained Udhampur seat by over 3.5 lakh ahead of the tally recorded by the Congress’s Vikramaditya Singh, grandson of Maharaja Hari Singh.Raman Bhalla of Congress was leading in the first hour of counting of votes from Jammu constituency. But by 4 pm, Jugal Kishore had zoomed past him with a lead of 2.7 lakh. After six hours, the BJP’s lead surged to 2.9 lakh votes.The first constituency for which result was declared in Jammu and Kashmir was Srinagar in the valley region. It went to National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, who consolidated his win with a victory margin of 70,050 votes.However, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti has not been able to go beyond her third position and faced defeat in Anantnag. Even before counting ended, she tweeted her acceptance of the “verdict”, stating that the people “have every right to express their anger for my failings”.I’ve been fortunate to get the love & affection of my people. They have every right to express their anger for my failings. Accept their verdict with humility. Congratulations to winning candidates from NC. I’m grateful to my party workers & colleagues.— Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) May 23, 2019National Conference’s retired Justice Hasnain Masoodi finally won the seat ahead of the Congress’s Ghulam Ahmad Mir with a margin of 66,76 votes. Incidentally, the National Conference and Congress are in an alliance in the state and their candidates in Anantnag were supposed to be in a “friendly fight”.Meanwhile, the National Conference’s Mohammad Akbar Lone was leading by 30,758 votes in a contest against Raja Aijaz Ali of the People’s Conference.Counting also continuing in Ladakh, which had been held by the BJP in 2014. However, the sitting BJP member of parliament resigned last year from the party’s membership. After an independent Sajjad Hussain was ahead in the first half of Thursday, the BJP’s Jamyang Tsering Namgyal caught up and surged with a lead of 10,930 votes.At 10:40 pm, with counting in three seats still continuing, the BJP had secured a vote share of 46.2%, a big jump from the polling percentage of 32.65% in 2014. It looks likely to retain all the seats that it won last time.However, the PDP, BJP’s former alliance partner, lost all their parliamentary seats to the National Conference. However, the National Conference’s vote share was down from 11.22% to 7.9%.But, just like in 2014, the Congress had the second highest portion among total votes polled, but failed to win any seats. In 2014, its vote share in the state was 23.07%, which increased to 28.57%. The Congress’s conundrum is that it remains a runner-up in the seats in the Jammu region, where voter turnout is very high. However, it continues to have no presence in the valley, where voter turnout has even gone down to zero in several polling booths. BackgroundIt has been a dismal parliamentary election in the Kashmir valley, with boycott calls by militants finding resonance even in remote rural areas that had seen good turnout in previous elections.The state witnessed a straight fight in most seats, with Congress and National Conference in an alliance and People’s Democratic Party not announcing candidates in two seats to avoid a division of “secular” votes.After only 35.1% voted in local body elections in October 2018, there was not much expectation of a high turnout in the valley. The elections were already being held in the shadow of the Pulwama terror attack and then the round of airstrikes by India and Pakistan in each other’s territory. India had struck a facility run by Jaish-e-Mohammed in Balakot, located inside Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.The militancy-wracked constituency of Anantnag witnessed the lowest voter turnout of just 8.76%. In fact, the last leg of the three-phase polling in the constituency recorded a turnout of just 2.81%. Around 387 polling booths registered zero voting across the Anantnag constituency. Not a single vote was cast at the village of Burhan Wani, the Hizbul Mujahideen commander, whose killing by security forces had triggered the latest round of agitation against New Delhi. Baramulla will see People’s Conference candidate Raja Ajaz Ali launching a stiff challenge to the legacy party candidates, Akbar Lone of NC and PDP’s Qayoom Wani. In 2014, the voting percentage was 39.1%, which dropped to 34.61%. An independent, Engineer Rasheed is also a strong candidate.Outside the valley, the voters travelling to the booth shot up. Jammu and Udhampur witnessed a substantial turnout of 72.49% and 70.2%, respectively. While Jammu’s turnout was a rise of 3.31%, there has been a dip of 1.31% in Udhampur.Union minister Jitendra Singh is contesting for the same pool of Rajput votes against Congress’ Vikramaditya Singh in Udhampur. In 2014, Jitendra Singh had defeated his Congress rival, Ghulam Nabi Azad by 60,976 votes. In Jammu, a sitting member of parliament Jugal Kishore Sharma, who won by a margin of over 2.5 lakh votes in 2014, faces a challenge from Congress-NC’s Raman Bhalla. In both these seats, PDP has not fielded any candidates.Modi addressed two rallies in Jammu and Udhampur on March 28 and April 14. There were, however, no rallies by Congress president Rahul Gandhi in the state.India’s largest parliamentary constituency in terms of area and the smallest on account of population, Ladakh witnessed a voter turnout of 63.7%, which was a drop from 70.78% in 2014.While it is traditionally a Congress stronghold, Thupstan Chhewang wrested the seat for BJP at the last general elections. However, Chhewang resigned from the party in November citing “unfulfilled promises”.BJP nominated the current chief executive councillor of Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Jamyang Tsering Namgyal. He faced a fight from Congress’ Rigzin Spalbar, who is a two time CEC of the council.The election campaign had been hit by controversy after Ladakhi journalists accused BJP office-bearers of trying to bribe them.(WIth agency inputs)