SRINAGAR: The Aam Aadmi Party registered its first victory in assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday when its candidate Mehraj Malik defeated his nearest rival from the BJP in Doda constituency by a margin of over 4,538 votes. Malik, a District Development Council (DDC) member, polled 23,228 votes against BJP’s Gajay Singh Rana’s 18,690 votes.
National Conference leader and former minister Khalid Najib Suharwardy and DPAP leader Abdul Majid Wani got 13,334 and 10,027 votes, respectively. Congress candidate Sheikh Riaz Ahmad was pushed to the fifth place having secured 4,170 votes.
Malik unsuccessfully contested Lok Sabha elections from Udhampur constituency early this year.
AAP had fielded seven candidates out of 90 assembly segments.
The party, which is in power in Delhi and Punjab, was granted national party status in September last year. It also has MLAs in Gujarat and Goa.
PTI

Agencies