The Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly election, 2014 was held in the Indian state of

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered ...

in five phases from 25 November – 20 December 2014. Voters elected 87 members to the

Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly The Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly also known as the Jammu and Kashmir Vidhan Sabha is the legislature of Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The Legislative Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir was dissolved by the Governor on 21 N ...

, which ends its six-year term on 19 January 2015. The results were declared on 23 December 2014. Voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) along with EVMs were used in 3 assembly seats out of 87 in Jammu Kashmir elections.

Background and campaign

Before the election, Indian National Congress broke its alliance with

Jammu and Kashmir National Conference The Jammu & Kashmir National Conference (JKNC) is a regional political party in the Indian union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Founded as the ''All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference'' by Sheikh Abdullah and Chaudhry Ghulam A ...

and contested on all seats in the assembly. Campaigning before the elections were aggressive and robust. Following the huge victory of Bharatiya Janata Party in the Indian parliamentary election, the BJP turned its attention towards J&K and campaigned on the promise of 'development'. This included a visit from the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi in support of the local BJP campaign.

Boycott Calls

*Hardline separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani had appealed to people of Kashmir to boycott the 2014

elections completely, arguing that "India has been holding elections in the Valley using the power of the gun and so such an exercise is not legitimate." He added, "My appeal to the youth, in particular, is that the sacrifices rendered by the people must be safeguarded and, hence, in no way should vote during elections." *Separatists were propagating the poll boycott campaign through video clips on social networking sites and applications, including Facebook and WhatsApp. *A four-minute video clip has gone viral on social sites with messages of chairmen of both hardline and moderate factions of Hurriyat Conference and Dukhtaran-e-Millat chief

Asiya Andrabi Asiya Andrabi is a Kashmiri separatist and founding leader of Dukhtaran-e-Millat . This group is part of the separatist organisation All Parties Hurriyat Conference in the Kashmir valley. Government of India has declared it as a "banned organiz ...

. The video message sent through WhatsApp and shared on Facebook and Twitter asked the people to boycott the coming polls. *Video also showed Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani addressing a gathering via phone urging youth not to undermine the mission of 'martyrs'. Moderate Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq is seen posing for the camera with the appeal that polls must be boycotted 'en masse'. Despite these calls, voter turnout in the 2014 elections instead increased by 4%, from roughly 61% in the previous election to 65%.

Voting

The polls were carried out in five phases. Despite several boycott calls by hurriyat leaders, elections recorded highest voters turnout in last 25 years. Voters turnout was more than 65% which is higher than usual voting percentage in other states of India. J & K Assembly election 2014

The European Parliament, on the behalf of European Union, welcomed the smooth conduct of the State Legislative Elections in the Jammu and Kashmir. The EU in its message said that, "The high voter turnout figure proves that democracy is firmly rooted in India. The EU would like to congratulate India and its democratic system for conduct of fair elections, unmarred by violence, in the state of Jammu and Kashmir". The European Parliament also takes cognizance of the fact that a large number of Kashmiri voters turned out despite calls for the boycott of elections by certain separatist forces. However, elected Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed said, "If God forbid the Hurriyat and the militants tried to disrupt the elections there would not have been as participative as they had been. They (Pakistan) also allowed these elections to take place." Ruling Party president Mehbooba Mufti also defended Mufti's remarks. While taking a dig at Mufti's statement former Chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir and leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said that, "In fact, Pakistan and militant groups tried their best to destabilize the democratic process in the state."

Results

, - ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" , Party ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" , Seats ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" , Previously ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" , +/– ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" , Vote % ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" , Vote Share , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

People's Democratic Party People's Democratic Party or ''variant thereof'', could refer to: * People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan *People's Democratic Party (Belize) *People's Democratic Party (Bhutan) *People's Democratic Party (Chile) * People's Democratic Party (Dom ...

, style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 28 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 21 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , +7 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 22.7% , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 10,92,203 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Bharatiya Janata Party , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 25 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 11 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , +14 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 23.0% , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 11,07,194 , - , style="text-align:left;" , National Conference , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 15 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 28 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , -13 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 20.8% , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 10,00,693 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Indian National Congress , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 12 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 17 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , -5 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 18.0% , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 8,67,883 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Jammu & Kashmir People's Conference The Jammu and Kashmir People's Conference is a political party in Jammu and Kashmir, India, founded by Abdul Ghani Lone and Molvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari in 1978. It is currently led by Sajjad Lone. It won two seats in the Jammu and Kashmir Le ...

, style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 2 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 0 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , +2 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 1.9% , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , , - , style="text-align:left;" , Communist Party of India (Marxist) , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 1 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 1 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 0 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 0.5% , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Jammu and Kashmir People's Democratic Front Jammu is the winter capital of the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It is the headquarters and the largest city in Jammu district of the union territory. Lying on the banks of the river Tawi, the city of Jammu, with an area of , ...

, style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 0 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 0 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 0 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , , - , style="text-align:left;" , Jammu & Kashmir National Panthers Party , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 0 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 3 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , -3 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , , - , style="text-align:left;" , People's Democratic Front , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 1 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 1 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 0 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , - , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , - , - , style="text-align:left;" , Jammu & Kashmir Democratic Party Nationalist , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 0 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 1 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , -1 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , % , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , , - , style="text-align:left;" , Independents , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 3 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , 4 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , -1 , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , % , style="text-align:right;vertical-align:top;" , , - , style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9" , Total (turnout 65.23%) ! style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 87 ! style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 87 ! style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", ! style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", - ! style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", - , - ! colspan="9" , , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2" , Valid votes , align="right" , 48,17,981 , align="right" , 99.90 , colspan="4" rowspan="5" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2" , Invalid votes , align="right" , 4,795 , align="right" , 0.10 , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2" , Votes cast / turnout , align="right" , 48,22,776 , align="right" , 65.91 , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2" , Abstentions , align="right" , 24,94,170 , align="right" , 34.09 , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2" , Registered voters , align="right" , 73,16,946 , colspan="1" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", , - , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan=12 , Source:

Election Commission of India The Election Commission of India (ECI) is a constitutional body. It was established by the Constitution of India to conduct and regulate elections in the country. Article 324 of the Constitution provides that the power of superintendence, di ...

PDP became the single largest party with 28 seats. BJP became the second largest party with 25 seats. Omar Abdullah resigned as a chief minister on 24 December 2014.

Elected Members

Government formation

Three days after the results, the

JKNC The Jammu & Kashmir National Conference (JKNC) is a regional political party in the Indian union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Founded as the ''All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference'' by Sheikh Abdullah and Chaudhry Ghulam Ab ...

approached the BJP for a meeting to try and form a government. As part of the deal,

Nirmal Kumar Singh Dr Nirmal Kumar Singh is an Indian politician and was the last Speaker of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir State. He is a former Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. He is a leader of Bharatiya ...

was to be the chief minister and JKNC's MLA Ali Mohammad Sagar was to be his deputy. The deal fell through after a revolt in the JKNC. The BJP also rejected this deal, citing morality issues. In the following days, the JKNC also announced its intention to support the PDP from outside by submitting a letter to the governor

Narinder Nath Vohra Narinder Nath Vohra (born 5May1936), popularly referred as N. N. Vohra, is a retired 1959batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Punjab cadre who was the 12thgovernor of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. He was the first civi ...

after the dialogue with the BJP fell through. The PDP refused. A week after the results, the PDP and the BJP officially started talks. Both parties had a two-member team to form a Common Minimum Programme (CMP). The PDP was represented by Naeem Akhtar and

Haseeb Drabu Haseeb A Drabu (born 1961) is an Indian politician, economist and the former member of Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly from Rajpora Constituency in Pulwana district. He was elected as Finance Minister of Jammu and Kashmir in BJP-PDP c ...

, while

Ram Madhav Varanasi Ram Madhav (born 22 August 1964) is an Indian politician who served as the National General Secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He was a member of the National Executive of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and has authored a few bo ...

and Nirmal Kumar Singh represented the BJP. Minister of State in the PMO,

Jitendra Singh Jitendra Singh may refer to: * Jitendra Singh (politician, born 1956), Indian Bharatiya Janata Party politician * Jitendra Singh (politician, born 1971), Indian National Congress politician * Jitendra Singh (BSP) or Jitendra Kumar Bablu Bhaiya, B ...

, supervised the dialogue. Omar Abdullah resigned as chief minister on 24 December. The Governor accepted his resignation but asked him to continue in an interim capacity until the formation of a new government.

President's rule In India, President's rule is the suspension of state government and imposition of direct Union government rule in a state. Under Article 356 of the Constitution of India, if a state government is unable to function according to Constitutional ...

was imposed on 1 January 2015. After dealing with issues, both parties turned their attention to the composition of the cabinet. The PDP was initially reluctant for a three-year rotation of the chief minister's post but later agreed. There were also issues related to the joining of the government by separatist-turned-politician

Sajjad Lone Sajad Gani Lone (born 1966) is an Indian politician, and former Member of the Legislative Assembly elected from the Handwara constituency. He is the chairman of Jammu and Kashmir People's Conference. Early and personal life Sajjad Lone was born ...

. In the run-up to the election, he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and praised him by calling him "big brother." The BJP reciprocated by not running a candidate against Lone for the Handwara seat, from where he won, and got elected to the assembly for the first time. Both parties announced on 25 February that the CMP was almost ready, in a joint press conference called by BJP national President

Amit Shah Amit Anil Chandra Shah (born 22 October 1964) is an Indian politician currently serving as the Minister of Home Affairs since 2019 and the first Minister of Co-operation of India since 2021. He served as the President of the Bharatiya Janata P ...

and PDP President Mehbooba Mufti. They also stated that the ideological differences had been "ironed out" and both parties were now working on the formation of a cabinet. The dialogue between both parties ended successfully on 18 February - two months and 5 days after the beginning of talks. The new PDP-BJP government took the oath of office on 1 March in the Zorawar Singh Stadium of Jammu, with

Mufti Mohammad Sayeed A Mufti (; ar, مفتي) is an Islamic jurist qualified to issue a nonbinding opinion (''fatwa'') on a point of Islamic law (''sharia''). The act of issuing fatwas is called ''iftāʾ''. Muftis and their ''fatwas'' played an important role ...

as chief minister for the full term of six years and Nirmal Kumar Singh as his deputy. Modi was also present for the occasion. Twelve cabinet ministers from each party were also sworn-in. This was the first time that the BJP was a coalition partner in the Jammu and Kashmir government. Lone and independent MLA for Udhampur, Pawan Kumar Gupta, were also sworn-in as cabinet ministers from the BJP's quota. The CMP was then released in a press conference. The CMP gave a vision of the "all-around development of Jammu and Kashmir" and "Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas" (with everyone, everyone's development). Contentious issues like

Article 370 Article 370 of the Indian constitution gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, a region located in the northern part of Indian subcontinent and part of the larger region of Kashmir which has been the subject of a dispute between India, Pak ...

and

AFSPA Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), 1958 is an act of the Parliament of India that grants special powers to the Indian Armed Forces to maintain public order in "disturbed areas". According to the Disturbed Areas (Special Courts) Act, 19 ...

would be referred to a high-power committee, with representation from both parties and civil society. The PDP also agreed to join the NDA's central, with Mehbooba Mufti's induction into the union cabinet, at a later date, and also support the Modi government in both houses of parliament.

References

External links

Website of the Election Commission of India
{{Jammu and Kashmir

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

2010s in Jammu and Kashmir 2014 State Assembly elections in India April 2014 events in India