Jammu Kashmir Results: Shia Leader Aga Syed Muntazir Mehdi Loses Budgam Seat To Omar Abdullah

Jammu Kashmir Election Results: PDP candidate Aga Syed Muntazir Mehdi, a prominent Shia cleric, lost to National Conference's Omar Abdullah by a significant margin in Budgam.

Aga Syed Muntazir Mehdi, belonging to one of the three prominent Shia clergy families in Kashmir lost the Budgam assembly seat. This VIP seat saw a high-stake battle between Mehdi and National Conference leader and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. 

The PDP candidate secured 17,525 votes and finished at second position, trailing by 18,485 votes behind Abdullah. 

Following the result, National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah announced that his son Omar will be the next Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir as Congress-NC alliance gained a decisive lead in the polls. 

Mehdi is the son of prominent Shia cleric and Hurriyat leader Aga Syed Hassan Mosavi. The Aga family is one of the three prominent Shia clergy families in Kashmir, apart from those of the late Iftikhar Ansari and the late Abbas Ansari. 

Mosavi has a significant foothold from the perspective of religion and politics in central Kashmir's Budgam district. 

The Budgam seat was being represented by Mehdi's cousin Aga Syed Ruhullah, who was elected from Srinagar during the Lok Sabha elections. Ruhullah, who contested the 2014 assembly polls from NC defeated PDP’s Muntazir Monhidin by a narrow margin of less than 3,000 votes.

Mehdi was personally welcomed into the PDP by its president Mehbooba Mufti. The PDP candidate said he did not join the party for a position of power but to raise his voice for marginalised youth. 

He said that his decision to enter mainstream politics was influenced by the current political, social, and religious situation in Jammu and Kashmir. “Our present is difficult, our future is uncertain and there are questions from our past. We need to talk about it, and for that, I needed a platform,” Mehdi told the Indian Express.