Party opposed to India’s stripping of Kashmir’s autonomy wins election

National Conference-led alliance wins 48 seats in 90-seat assembly in first state legislative elections in a decade.

India-administered Kashmir’s biggest political party opposed to India’s stripping of the region’s semi-autonomy has won the most seats in the first legislative elections since the move by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government five years ago.

The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, or NC, won 42 seats in the 90-seat Legislative Assembly, the Election Commission announced on Tuesday.

The BJP secured 29 seats while the country’s main opposition Indian National Congress party, which fought the election in alliance with the NC, succeeded in six constituencies.

Polling took place over three phases starting on September 18.

“People have supported us more than our expectations. Now our efforts will be to prove that we are worth these votes,” Omar Abdullah, the NC leader and the region’s former chief minister, told reporters in the main city of Srinagar.

His father and president of the party, Farooq Abdullah, said its mandate was to run the region without “police raj” rule and try freeing people from jails. “Media will be free,” he said.

Hundreds of NC workers gathered outside counting centres and at the homes of the winning candidates to celebrate the party’s victory.

Kashmir has been at the centre of a dispute with neighbouring Pakistan since 1947. India and Pakistan both claim the region in full but rule it in part after having fought two of their three wars over the region.

Some saw the vote as a de facto referendum on the federal government’s decision to repeal the territory’s special status.

The move downgraded and divided the former state into two centrally governed union territories, Ladakh and