Srinagar: National Conference president Farooq Abdullah was declared elected to the Lok Sabha from Srinagar defeating his nearest rival, Nazir Ahmad Khan of the PDP, by a margin of 10,776 votes giving a blow to the ruling coalition in the state.Out of the total 89,883 votes polled, 88,951 were found valid while 932 voters used the NOTA option, an official spokesman said here after the counting of votes was completed at the highly guarded Sher-e-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC) here today. The byelection to the Srinagar parliamentary constituency was held on April 9 recording an overall poll percentage of 7.14 per cent, while re-poll was held in 38 polling stations of Budgam on April 13 with a turnout of 2.02 per cent. The overall turnout was recorded at the lowest-ever of 7.09 per cent.Farooq, the joint candidate of the National Conference and Congress polled 48,555 votes while Nazir Khan polled 37,779 votes. Other candidates, Bikram Singh of J&K Liberal Democratic Party polled 497 votes, Chetan Sharma of Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha polled 198 votes, Sajad Reshi of Rashtriya Samajwadi Party (S) polled 155 votes and Independent candidates Sajjad Hussain Beigh, Ghulam Hassan Dar, Farooq Ahmad Dar and Mehraj Khurshid Malik polled 363, 199, 630 and 575 votes, respectively.Out of the total 974 migrant votes polled, 952 votes were found valid. Out of these, the NC candidate polled 184 votes and PDP candidate got 703 votes. Bikram Singh of J&K Liberal Democratic Party polled 20 votes, Chetan Sharma of Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha polled 5 votes, Sajad Reshi of Rashtriya Samajwadi Party (S) 23 votes and independent candidates Sajjad Hussain Beigh, Ghulam Hassan Dar, Farooq Ahmad Dar and Mehraj Khurshid Malik polled nil, four, five and seven votes respectively. Twentytwo migrant voters used the NOTA option. (TNS)
In low-turnout poll, 48,555 votes for Farooq Abdullah
