 Sanjay pandita
Early Times Report
Jammu, Nov 14: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) received a significant boost in Jammu and Kashmir today after retaining the prestigious Nagrota Assembly seat, with party nominee Divyani Rana winning the by-election by an emphatic margin of 24,647 votes.
Divyani Rana secured 42,350 votes, far ahead of her closest rival, Harsh Dev Singh of the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP), who garnered 17,703 votes. Harsh Dev Singh, a veteran politician and three-time MLA, was expected to put up a strong fight but fell substantially short. Shamim Begum, the National Conference (NC) candidate, finished third with 10,872 votes. Ten candidates contested the bypoll.
The Nagrota by-election, held on Tuesday, recorded an impressive 75.08% voter turnout, only slightly lower than the 77.66% turnout seen in the 2024 Assembly elections. Despite bypolls typically attracting lower participation, Nagrota witnessed a robust turnout nearly matching last year’s figure.
In the 2024 Assembly elections, BJP’s Devender Singh Rana had polled 48,113 votes, while NC’s Joginder Singh secured 17,641 votes. Congress nominee Balbir Singh finished third with 5,979 votes, and the rest of the candidates trailed in three-digit totals. A total of 74,083 votes were cast in that election.
A similar number of votes were polled in the 2025 by-election, with around 98,000 registered voters in the constituency—only a marginal increase from last year.
The by-election was necessitated by the sudden demise of senior BJP leader Devender Singh Rana, who passed away just days after winning the seat and taking oath as MLA.
The BJP nominated Divyani Rana, daughter of the late Devender Singh Rana, to retain the family’s political legacy. She faced NC’s Shamim Begum, a sitting District Development Council (DDC) member; Harsh Dev Singh of JKNPP; and BJP rebel Anil Sharma, who contested as an Independent. Six other candidates were also in the fray.
Divyani Rana, an Economics graduate from the University of California, centered her campaign on “professional and inclusive development.” Shamim Begum banked on grassroots outreach and the NC’s organizational network to position herself as a candidate of stability and continuity.
Nagrota has swung between the BJP and NC over the past five Assembly elections since 1996, with the BJP winning three times and the NC twice. The Congress did not field a candidate in this bypoll and also stayed away from campaigning for the NC, despite their alliance at the UT level.
Historically, the BJP won the seat in 2002, 2008, and 2024, while the NC triumphed in 1996 and 2014. In 2008 and 2014, BJP’s Jugal Kishore Sharma represented Nagrota in the Assembly. In 1996, NC leader Ajatshatru Singh won the seat. In both 2014 and 2024, the late Devender Singh Rana emerged victorious—first as an NC candidate and later as a BJP nominee. In 2025, his daughter Divyani Rana has now carried forward that legacy with a decisive win for the BJP |
