In J&K, BJP bagged an all-time high of 29 seats in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections. Akashvani Jammu correspondent reports that more than 30 former ministers lost their seats in the elections, with several being defeated by first-time candidates. Among those who faced defeat were Abdul Gaffar Sofi, Usman Majeed, Vikar Rasool, Muzaffar Beigh, Lal Singh, Manohar Lal, Chowdhary Zulfikar, Altaf Bukhari, Harsh Dev Singh, Tara Chand, and Hakeem Mohammad Yaseen. In this election, many of these former ministers either ran as independents or joined other parties. Former Deputy Chief Minister and Congress candidate Tara Chand lost his traditional bastion of the Chhamb seat in Jammu district, which was won by rebel independent candidate Satesh Sharma with a margin of 6,929 votes. The Congress party had won the Chhamb Assembly Constituency in seven out of the past nine elections. The BJP’s state president, Ravinder Raina, also failed to retain his Nowshera assembly seat in Rajouri district. Mr. Raina lost to the National Conference’s Surinder Choudhary by a margin of 7,819 votes. A total of 873 candidates competed in the elections across 90 assembly constituencies, with 47 seats located in Kashmir and 43 in the Jammu region.