51 first-time MLAs to enter J&K Assembly

Srinagar: There are 51 first-time MLAs among the 90 members elected to the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly in the first polls held for the Union Territory's legislature.

The National Conference (NC), which has emerged as the single-largest party in the election with 42 seats, has the highest number of debutant MLAs at 24.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which swept the polls in the Jammu plains winning 29 seats, is second in terms of seats won as well as the number of first-time MLAs. The saffron party has 15 first-time MLAs, accounting for more than half of its tally.

The Congress, which fared poorly in the Jammu region but got six face-saving seats in the Kashmir valley, has two debutant MLAs while six of the seven Independent candidates who won the polls have become members of the elite House for the first time.

All three elected members of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and the lone Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA are first timers in the Assembly.

Prominent among the first-time MLAs are PDP youth president Waheed Para, a businessman, AAP MLA from Doda Mehraj Malik and the NC's Mushtaq Ahmad Guroo, who defeated Apni Party president and former minister Altaf Bukhari.

Several newly-elected MLAs have been members of the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha or the Legislative Council in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. Among them is former high court judge and NC leader Hasnain Masoodi, who was a member of the Lok Sabha from 2019 to 2024.

Masoodi was elected to the Assembly from Pampore.

PDP leader Mir Mohammad Fayaz, who won the electoral contest from Kupwara, was a member of the Rajya Sabha from 2015 to 2021. The 47-year-old had lost the 2014 Assembly polls by a slender margin of 151 votes.

NC leaders Bashir Ahmad Veeri (Srigufwara-Bijbehara), Saifuddin Bhat (Khansahib), Javaid Ahmad Mirchal (Karnah), Surinder Kumar Choudhary (Nowshera) and Showkat Hussain Ganie (Zainapora) have in the past been members of the Legislative Council.

From the BJP, Vikram Randhawa, who won the Bahu seat in Jammu, was a member of the Upper House of the legislature in the past.

The Upper House of the Jammu and Kashmir legislature was abolished following the reorganisation of the erstwhile state into two Union territories.