Srinagar: PDP president and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday lost the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat to National Conference’s Justice (retd) Hasnain Masoodi by nearly 10,000 votes. Masoodi, who was fighting his maiden electoral battle, polled 40,180 votes, while Mehbooba secured 30,524 votes, officials said.
Congress’s state unit president Ghulam Ahmad Mir was the runner up with 33,504 votes, they said. They said the NC candidate secured 32.59 per cent of the total votes polled on the seat which went to polls in three phases due to security reasons.
Mir polled 26.76 per cent while Mehbooba 24.6 per cent of the votes. Former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah won the election to the Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency by trouncing his nearest rival by over 70,000 votes, entering the lower house of Parliament for the fourth time.
