2002 Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly election

Voting stages

The first phase voting took place on 16 September 2002.[13] There was a polling station for just 11 voters in Zanskar.[6] BJP contested on 52 seats while Jammu State Morcha contested on 12 seats.[14][15] National Conference president Omar Abdullah contested from Ganderbal seat.[16] Separatists had varied views on the elections ranging from voting to boycott of elections.[17][18][19]

The four stages of the elections were held as follows:

The Jammu & Kashmir National Conference lost significant support with its number of seats coming down from 57 to 28. The Indian National Congress gained from 7 seats earlier to 20. But the significant gainer was Mufti Mohammad Syed's People's Democratic Party (PDP) winning 16 seats for the first time. After the election, Congress and PDP formed a coalition government. It was agreed Mufti Mohammad Syed would be the Chief Minister for the first three years and the Congress party's Ghulam Nabi Azad would serve for the next three years. This was the first time Congress came to power after Syed Mir Qasim in 1975.[21]

The Bharatiya Janata Party won just one seat, down from 8 seats it held earlier. It faced competition in Jammu from the Jammu Mukti Morcha, a party backed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which called for a trifurcation of the state (into Jammu, Kashmir Valley, and Ladakh as separate states).[21]