Baramulla Lok Sabha Election Results: Engineer Rashid Secures Win Against Omar Abdullah

Abdul Rashid Sheikh or 'Engineer Rashid' has won by a margin of 2,04,142 votes, after securing 4,72,481 votes in the Baramulla constituency in Jammu and Kashmir. In comparison, National Conference's Omar Abdullah won 2,68,339 votes, according to data by the Election Commission of India.

National Conference's Omar Abdullah officially conceded the Baramulla Lok Sabha seat of Jammu and Kashmir defeat on Tuesday, according to a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. Abdullah contested against Independent candidate Abdul Rashid Sheikh.

"I think it’s time to accept the inevitable," Abdullah said in a post on X.

Sheikh was leading against National Conference leader Abdullah by a margin of 1,28,441 votes with 2,80,027 votes., whereas Abdullah had managed to secure 1,51,586 votes at the time of concession.

Sheikh, who is popularly known as Engineer Rashid, had bagged 2,56,557 around 1:30 p.m., while Abdullah was second with 1,35,828 votes, according to Election Commission of India data. Sajad Gani Lone of the People Conference was in the third position with 86,471 votes, according to the Election Commission of India website.

Rashid was arrested in 2019 in a terror funding case and has filed his nomination from Tihar jail. Abdullah, the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, had replaced Mohammad Akbar Lone, who had won the 2019 polls.

In 2019, Mohammad Akbar Lone won with 1.33 lakh votes, while his rival—Raja Aijaz Ali of the Peoples Conference—got 1.03 lakh votes.

The Baramulla constituency from Kashmir went to the polls in the fifth phase with a 59.1% voter turnout. The ongoing election marks the first major voting exercise in Jammu and Kashmir since the August 2019 revocation of Article 370 of the Constitution.