New Delhi: Where the Aam Aadmi Party has drawn a blank in Haryana, it is now leading the race for the Doda legislative seat in Jammu and Kashmir, NDTV reported.
The party candidate Mehraj Malik who pulled off the Delhi party’s first ever win in the region in local body polls in December 2020 is ahead of the BJP’s Gajay Singh Rana by 5,000 votes as of 1.30 pm.
The update comes after the completion of twelve rounds of counting with the AAP candidate leading the National Conference's Khalid Najib Suharwardy by nearly 10,000.
The BJP's Shakti Raj won the Doda seat in the 2014 polls, which had been traditionally switched between the National Conference and the Congress since the first poll in 1962.
PM Modi started the BJP’s election campaign for Jammu and Kashmir from Doda. His visit to the place was the first by a prime minister in over four decades, according to NDTV.
The surprise for AAP in J&K comes as the party is reeling from the shock of failing to won seats in Haryana.
The setback in Arvind Kejriwal's home state could be disheartening the party workers ahead of the Delhi election only four months away.
The AAP's Haryana loss could be attributed to factors including the party’s failure to bring about a seat-sharing agreement with the Congress under INDIA bloc.