The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is set to win the by-election in central Kashmir’s Budgam constituency, which has been represented by the National Conference (NC) since 1977 and last elected Chief Minister Omar Adbulllah as its representative in the 2024 Assembly elections.

A bypoll was necessitated in the constituency after Omar Abdullah, who won two seats in 2024, chose to keep the family bastion of Ganderbal and relinquish Budgam.

On Friday, PDP’s Aga Muntazir Mehdi led his nearest rival, Aga Syed Mahmood of the NC, by 4,500 votes after 13 rounds of counting. In last September’s election, Muntazir had lost to Adbullah by over 18,000 votes. However, while Abdullah vacated the seat, the PDP candidate kept up his presence on the ground.

The BJP also fielded an Aga, though not from

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