The early trends in the District Development Council (DDC) elections in Jammu and Kashmir on  Tuesday gave an edge to the Farooq Abdullah-led People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration. This is the first election in Jammu and Kashmir after the scrapping of the special status and making it a Union Territory.

In the early vote count trends, the Gupkar alliance which has National Conference (NC) and Mehbooba Mufti’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and other regional parties is leading in 81 seats, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 47 and Congress in 21.

In the Jammu province, BJP is ahead in 44 seats, while the Gupkar alliance in 20. In Kashmir region and the regional parties group is leading in 61 seats and BJP is at three.

The votes are being counted for 280 seats, with 14 seats in the 20 districts of the Union Territory. In the DDC elections, ballot papers have been used instead of electronic voting machines (EVMs).The Jammu and Kashmir District Development Council (DDC) elections were held in eight phases and was concluded on December 19 and the results will be declared on December 22.

The Gupkar alliance was formed after the abrogation of Article 370 which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir. Former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti and others leaders of the valley were detained in August last year to prevent protests. The NC leaders Farooq and Omar Abdullah were released in March while PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti was released in October after over a year of being detained.

The BJP incharge for the DDC polls Anurag Thakur said, “The results will be out today and I am confident of Bhartiya Janata Party’s performance. People want to see new leadership take charge in J&K that will help resolve issues in their constituencies.”

He further added, “Even though people were threatened, they came out in huge numbers to cast their vote. This is the victory of democracy. PM Modi’s dream that at grassroots level- panchayat, BDC & DDC elections should be held in J&K – has been fulfilled.”

The decision to fight the DDC election was taken by the Gupkar alliance and it announced that it will field joint candidates and even issued list of their ‘unanimous’ candidates for first five phases but a fight over seat sharing forced them not to release list for the remains three phases.

The Gupkar alliance had alleged that their candidates had been kept in security enclosures and were not allowed to campaign for security reasons.

The BJP, on the other hand flew central leaders to campaign for the J&K elections.