SRINAGAR: BJP candidate Bashir Ahmad Mir from Shankarpora was on Saturday elected as a corporator of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) by a slender margin of seven votes. Interestingly, only nine votes were polled in Shankarpora ward in the outskirts of the city on October 8.
Mir was so confident that he had announced his victory at the Shankarpora polling station as soon as the voting concluded. "The total number of votes polled in the ward was nine, out of which I got eight. My opposite (candidate) got only one," he told reporters at SKICC here where counting of votes was held.
The polling for the Shankarpora ward in Baghi-Mehtab area of the city was held in the first phase of the four-phased urban local body polls.
Meanwhile in Ladakh, the BJP failed to open its account. Out of the total 26 wards in this region, the Congress bagged all the 13 seats in Leh municipal committee. It also won five wards in neighbouring Kargil district, election officials said. Six seats in the region have gone to independent candidates, while the result of only two seats is awaited, they said.
The Ladakh Lok Sabha constituency is represented by BJP's Thupstan Chhewang, but the Congress had won three of the four assembly segments in the parliamentary constituency in the state polls held in 2014. The other assembly segment is represented by an independent MLA.
In the 208 wards that went to polls in Kashmir division in the four-phased elections earlier this month, the Congress has won 70 wards so far followed by 53 wards by independents. The BJP has managed to win only 21 seats, while the Janata Dal (United) bagged one seat, the officials added.
