A year after the assembly elections, political activities have heated up again in Jammu and Kashmir as the Election Commission issued a notification for holding of by-elections in Budgam and Nagrota constituencies on November 11.
Budgam lies in Central Kashmir and fell vacant after Chief Minister Omar Abdullah decided to vacate the seat as he was also elected from the Ganderbal Assembly constituency in the 2024 elections.
Nagrota assembly seat was won by Devinder Singh Rana of the BJP. Rana, the younger brother of Jitender Singh, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), died in October last year.
The ECI announced by-polls for the two assembly segments while announcing the schedule for the Bihar assembly polls on Monday. The code of conduct has come into force immediately.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced that by-elections for the Budgam and Nagrota Assembly constituencies will be held on November 11. The counting of votes is scheduled for November 14. #JammuKashmir pic.twitter.com/86eJxg7Xcq
— Choudhary Danish Azaam (@danishazaam012) October 6, 2025
Political parties have started consultations for identifying candidates for the two seats. In the 2024 assembly elections, Omar had won the Budgam seat by polling 35,804 votes against the PDP’s Aga Syed Muntazir Mehdi, who secured 17,445 votes.
In Nagrota, Rana had secured a record victory margin of 30,472 votes—the highest across J&K—defeating National Conference’s (NC) Joginder Singh. Rana had previously won the same seat in 2014 as an NC candidate, resisting the strong Modi wave, before switching to the BJP in 2021.
The constituency has a sizable Shia Muslim vote, and campaigning by NC’s MP Syed Agha Rouhalla Mehdi had swayed a good chunk of the Shia vote towards the NC.
Omar opted for Budgam as his second constituency after feeling threatened in Ganderbal due to Sarjan Barkati, a separatist who contested from jail. He opted for Budgam after Agha Mehmood withdrew his candidature from the seat.
Observers say that the NC is still considered strong in the constituency, but the party candidate is unlikely to enjoy the same backing from Mehdi over the failure of the party, especially Omar, to take a stand for the restoration of statehood in Jammu and Kashmir.
The names of Omar’s advisor, Nasir Aslam Wani, and Mehmood are being discussed as potential candidates. The PDP is likely to repeat Muntasir from the constituency. Observers opine that the PDP candidate will be harder to beat this time due to differences between Mehdi and the NC leadership.
The BJP is likely to give a mandate to Rana's daughter, Devyani Rana, in Nagrota. In the last elections, the NC and the Congress had engaged in a friendly contest in Nagrota. This time, the Congress is likely to support the NC as the former needs the latter's support to get one of its members elected to the Rajya Sabha.
Elections for the four Rajya Sabha seats will be held on October 24. Given the number equation in the assembly, the NC is expected to win three of the four seats and the BJP one seat.
The gazette notification for the assembly bypolls will be issued on October 13, and nominations will close on October 20. Scrutiny will take place on October 22, and withdrawals will be allowed till October 24. Counting of votes will take place on November 14. |
