New Delhi:

The National Conference-Congress alliance may have won more seats in Jammu and Kashmir but the BJP has emerged as the single-largest party in terms of vote share, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday. 

In his customary evening address after election results, PM Modi pointed out that the BJP had set a record by winning in Haryana for the third straight time and thanked voters for the verdict. Shifting focus to Jammu and Kashmir, he said elections have taken place in a peaceful manner in the erstwhile state after decades.

“Peaceful voting was held, results were declared. This is a victory for the Constitution, for democracy. The people of Jammu and Kashmir have given more seats to the National Conference and its allies. I send them my best wishes as well. In terms of vote share, the BJP has emerged as the single largest party in Jammu and Kashmir,” he said in Hindi. 

The National Conference-Congress-CPM alliance won 49 of the Union Territory’s 90 Assembly seats for which elections were held. The National Conference contributed 42 of these, with the Congress winning six and the CPM one. 

The BJP achieved victory in 29 seats, four more than it had in 2014. Its vote share, however, stood at 25.64% while the National Conference polled 23.43%. The Congress’ vote share was only 11.97%.

National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah has said his son and party Vice President Omar Abdullah will be the next chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir. Omar Abdullah, however, insisted that the chief minister will be decided by the MLAs of the party and the alliance. 

Terming the election result a rejection of the removal of Article 370, Mr Abdullah also said he hoped that the PM would fulfil his promise and restore statehood to Jammu and Kashmir at the earliest. 

“The PM is an honourable man… he promised statehood to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and I hope he lives up to that,” Mr Abdullah told NDTV.