1996 Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly election

Elections for the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir were held over September–October 1996.^[2] Farooq Abdullah became Chief Minister of Jammu Kashmir after the elections. The 1996 Lok Sabha elections and assembly elections in the state were possible due to efforts of counter-insurgents like Kuka Parray, (head of Ikhwan-ul-Muslemoon).^[3][4][5]

1996 Jammu and Kashmir state assembly elections

← 1987 17 September 1996 2002 →
all 87 seats in Legislative Assembly 44 seats needed for a majority
Registered	4,761,095
Turnout	53.92%(20.98%)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Farooq Abdullah Party JKNC BJP INC Last election 40 2 26 Seats won 57 8 7 Seat change 17 6 19 Percentage 34.78% 12.13% 20.00%   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Not announced Party Janata Dal BSP Last election - - Seats won 5 4[1] Seat change 5 4 Percentage 10.87% 6.43%
Chief Minister before election President's rule Elected Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah JKNC

Background

The National Conference, which had boycotted the 1996 Indian general election, agreed to participate in the 1996 Assembly elections only after Prime Minister, H. D. Deve Gowda, promised "maximum autonomy" for Jammu and Kashmir.^[6]

Results

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Jammu & Kashmir National Conference	863,612	34.78	57	17
	Indian National Congress	496,628	20.00	7	19
	Bharatiya Janata Party	301,238	12.13	8	6
	Janata Dal	269,984	10.87	5	New
	Bahujan Samaj Party	159,690	6.43	4	New
	Jammu and Kashmir Awami League	60,437	2.43	1	New
	Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party	55,885	2.25	1	1
	Communist Party of India (Marxist)	23,774	0.96	1	1
	All India Indira Congress (Tiwari)	17,473	0.70	1	New
	Others	3,090	0.12	0	0
	Independents	231,111	9.31	2	6
Total		2,482,922	100.00	87	11
Valid votes		2,482,922	96.74
Invalid/blank votes		83,734	3.26
Total votes		2,566,656	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		4,761,095	53.91
Source: ECI[7]

In the 1996 assembly elections, 14 women contested, 10 of whom lost their deposits, while 2 were elected.^[8] National Conference won 57 out of 86 seats.^[9][10] BSP contested first time on 29 seats in the state and won 4 seats.^[1] BJP rose from two seats in 1987 to 8 seats in 1996.^[11]

Results by constituency

• Winner, runner-up, voter turnout, and victory margin in every constituency^[12]

Assembly Constituency		Turnout	Winner					Runner Up					Margin
#k	Names	%	Candidate	Party		Votes	%	Candidate	Party		Votes	%
1	Karnah	66.07%	Kafil-ur-Rehman		JKNC	10,739	62.19%	Abdul Rahman Badana		JD	4,311	24.96%	6,428
2	Kupwara	25.97%	Saifullah Mir		JKNC	5,766	37.9%	Chowdhary Salam-U-Din		INC	4,755	31.26%	1,011
3	Lolab	43.82%	Mushtaq Ahmad Lone		JKNC	9,554	37.26%	Abdul Rahim Wani		JD	7,367	28.73%	2,187
4	Handwara	34.82%	Mohammed Ramzan Chowdry		JKNC	10,937	66.71%	Ali Mohammed Dar		INC	3,017	18.4%	7,920
5	Langate	42.67%	Abdul Ahad Wani		JKNC	9,734	61.61%	Ghulam Mohi-Ud-Din War		INC	2,886	18.27%	6,848
6	Uri	70.69%	Mohammad Shafi		JKNC	18,117	53.67%	Taj Mohiuddin		INC	9,731	28.83%	8,386
7	Rafiabad	43.97%	Mohammad Dilawar Mir		JD	9,084	44.2%	Ghulam Mohammed Khan		JKNC	5,666	27.57%	3,418
8	Sopore	38.02%	Abdul Ahad Vakil		JKNC	14,441	64.47%	Ghulam Nabi Mircha		INC	2,842	12.69%	11,599
9	Gurez	76.14%	Faqir Mohammed Khan		Independent	2,175	29.72%	Mohammed Anwar		JKNC	1,398	19.1%	777
10	Bandipora	50.57%	Ghulam Rasool Mir		JKNC	9,625	38.3%	Usman Abdul Majid		JKAL	5,652	22.49%	3,973
11	Sonawari	60.94%	Mohammad Yusuf Parray		JKAL	15,601	41.15%	Mohammad Akbar Lone		JKNC	14,875	39.24%	726
12	Sangrama	60.21%	Mohammed Maqbool		JKNC	9,779	48.86%	Shiekh Mohammed Sadiq		INC	5,160	25.78%	4,619
13	Baramulla	37.47%	Mujahid Mohammed Abdullah		JKNC	7,649	41.28%	Mohammed Sareer Khan		INC	2,474	13.35%	5,175
14	Gulmarg	65.16%	Sheikh Mustafa Kamal		JKNC	18,575	49.23%	Ghulam Hassan Mir		INC	16,822	44.59%	1,753
15	Pattan	71.34%	Iftikhar Hussain Ansari		INC	18,868	45.94%	Abdul Rashid Shaheen		JD	10,540	25.66%	8,328
16	Kangan	63.29%	Mian Altaf Ahmed Larvi		JKNC	21,553	90.23%	Qazi Mohammed Afzal		INC	954	3.99%	20,599
17	Ganderbal	50.62%	Farooq Abdullah		JKNC	16,440	70.25%	Qazi Mohammad Afzal		INC	3,617	15.46%	12,823
18	Hazratbal	23.6%	Mohmmad Syed Akhoon		JKNC	10,109	65.08%	Ghulam Mohi-Ud-Din		BSP	3,855	24.82%	6,254
19	Zadibal	12.68%	Sadiq Ali		JKNC	2,948	49.08%	Abdul Hassan Bhat		JD	1,451	24.16%	1,497
20	Eidgah	20.01%	Mubarak Ahmed Gul		JKNC	8,206	78.12%	Farooq Ahmad		JD	1,035	9.85%	7,171
21	Khanyar	12.66%	Ali Mohammad Sagar		JKNC	6,194	87.52%	Nazir Ahmed		JD	607	8.58%	5,587
22	Habba Kadal	5.37%	Piyare Lal Handoo		JKNC	5,984	59.83%	Sarla Taploo		BJP	1,969	19.69%	4,015
23	Amira Kadal	11.51%	Mohammad Shafi Bhat		JKNC	4,256	63.86%	Mohammed Altaf Dar		JD	968	14.52%	3,288
24	Sonawar	34.5%	Ghulam Mohammed Bawan		JKNC	9,873	58.92%	Bashir Ahmad Kuthoo		JD	3,137	18.72%	6,736
25	Batmaloo	19.44%	Ghulam Mohi-Ud-Din Shah		JKNC	9,583	69.03%	Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh		INC	1,576	11.35%	8,007
26	Chadoora	61.69%	Ali Mohammad Dar		JKNC	11,230	44.78%	Ghulam Nabi Mir		INC	6,134	24.46%	5,096
27	Budgam	67.27%	Syed Ghulam Hussain Geelani		JKNC	15,360	41.51%	Aga Syed Mahmood		INC	13,766	37.21%	1,594
28	Beerwah	70.72%	Aga Syed Mahmood Almosvi		JKNC	19,456	44.68%	Sarfarz Khan		JD	17,798	40.87%	1,658
29	Khan Sahib	63.55%	Abdul Gani Naseem		JKNC	12,785	40.65%	Nazir Ahmad Khan		JD	6,254	19.89%	6,531
30	Charari Sharief	64.13%	Abdul Rahim Rather		JKNC	19,590	60.31%	Ghulam Hassan Wani		JD	6,395	19.69%	13,195
31	Tral	58.3%	Ali Muhammad Naik		JKNC	22,732	77.92%	Krishan Singh		JKNPP	2,127	7.29%	20,605
32	Pampore	61.01%	Mushtaq Ahmad		JKNC	18,112	69.83%	Mohammed Anwar		INC	6,162	23.76%	11,950
33	Pulwama	51.31%	Bashir Ahmad Nengroo		JKNC	12,030	52.46%	Syed Bashir Ahmad		JD	7,398	32.26%	4,632
34	Rajpora	51.63%	Ghulam Mohi Uddin Mir		JKNC	15,455	61.2%	Naba Mir		JD	6,083	24.09%	9,372
35	Wachi	50.93%	Mohammed Jabar Mir		JKNC	12,169	55.85%	Ghulam Hassan Khan		INC	3,113	14.29%	9,056
36	Shopian	48.06%	Shiekh Mohammed Rafi		JKNC	10,340	49.1%	Ghulam Nabi Shah		JD	7,040	33.43%	3,300
37	Noorabad	58.7%	Sakeena Akhtar		JKNC	12,553	53.12%	Gulzar Dar		JD	7,694	32.56%	4,859
38	Kulgam	59.65%	Mohamad Yousuf Tarigami		CPI(M)	21,837	69.65%	Habibullah Laway		JD	5,671	18.09%	16,166
39	Hom Shali Bugh	46.58%	Gul Mohammed Rafiqui		JKNC	5,863	32.2%	Mohammed Sikander		JKAL	3,948	21.68%	1,915
40	Anantnag	34.18%	Safdar Ali Beg		JKNC	6,066	31.5%	Bashir Ahmad Dada		JKAL	5,448	28.29%	618
41	Devsar	51.56%	Peerzada Ghulam Ahmad		JKNC	8,763	35.26%	Mohammed Yousuf		INC	6,777	27.27%	1,986
42	Dooru	49.49%	Ghulam Hassan Wani		JKNC	10,076	46.05%	Ghulam Ahmad Mir		INC	5,175	23.65%	4,901
43	Kokernag	39.03%	Syed Abdul Rashid		JKNC	11,436	49.88%	Abdul Rashid Rather		JKAL	4,145	18.08%	7,291
44	Shangus–Anantnag East	52.35%	Abdul Majeed Mir		JKNC	10,703	44.55%	Gowhar Maqbool		JD	9,710	40.42%	993
45	Srigufwara–Bijbehara	36.26%	Mehbooba Mufti		INC	10,051	45.28%	Abdul Gani Shah		JKNC	7,780	35.05%	2,271
46	Pahalgam	49.51%	Abdul Kabir Bhat		JKNC	13,749	61.81%	Gulshan Akhter		INC	4,078	18.33%	9,671
47	Nubra	64.46%	Tsetan Namgyal		JKNC	3,176	50.66%	Stanzin Tundup		INC	3,093	49.34%	83
48	Leh	57.28%	Chering Dorjay		INC	16,712	51.52%	Sonam Wangchuk Narboo		JKNC	10,225	31.52%	6,487
49	Kargil	80.54%	Qamar Ali Akhoon		JKNC	24,183	57.62%	Hassan Khan		INC	12,104	28.84%	12,079
50	Zanskar	79.92%	Mohammed Abass		JKNC	6,855	46.9%	Kachoo Mohammed Ali Khan		INC	5,559	38.03%	1,296
51	Kishtwar	68.49%	Bashir Ahmed Kichloo		JKNC	17,889	50.61%	Rajinder Singh		BJP	10,900	30.84%	6,989
52	Inderwal	61.27%	Qazi Jalal-Ud-Din		JKNC	11,097	37.87%	Ghulam Mohammad Saroori		Independent	10,002	34.13%	1,095
53	Doda	64.5%	Maulana Attaullah Suharwardy		JKNC	13,230	43.74%	Ghulam Qadir Wani		JD	8,065	26.66%	5,165
54	Bhaderwah	66.73%	Sheikh Abdul Rehman		BSP	21,615	51.23%	Daya Krishan Kotwal		BJP	17,260	40.91%	4,355
55	Ramban	61.26%	Bali Bhagat		BJP	12,359	46.78%	Suram Chand		JKNC	10,123	38.32%	2,236
56	Banihal	52.26%	Mohammed Farooq Mir		Independent	10,925	46.69%	Molvi Abdul Rashid		JKNC	7,778	33.24%	3,147
57	Gulabgarh	67.01%	Abdul Ghani Malik		JD	11,644	40.87%	Ajaz Ahmad		JKNC	10,688	37.52%	956
58	Reasi	61.24%	Jagjiven Lal		JD	11,974	27.97%	Baldev Raj		BJP	7,072	16.52%	4,902
59	Gool Arnas	58.29%	Abdul Wahid Shan		JKNC	9,783	44.89%	Mohammed Ayub Khan		INC	5,669	26.01%	4,114
60	Udhampur	56.14%	Shiv Charan Gupta		BJP	22,928	57.83%	Balak Ram		INC	7,463	18.82%	15,465
61	Chenani	47.88%	Prithvi Chand		BJP	10,493	43.08%	Krishan Chander		INC	7,589	31.15%	2,904
62	Ramnagar	53.75%	Harsh Dev Singh		JKNPP	9,049	24.56%	Khalil-Allah		BSP	8,448	22.93%	601
63	Bani	63.94%	Ghulam Haider Malik		JKNC	5,810	34.%	Lal Chand		JD	3,446	20.17%	2,364
64	Basohli	63.6%	Chaudhary Lal Singh		AIIC(T)	12,140	38.44%	Jagdish Raj S/O Tula Ram		INC	7,912	25.05%	4,228
65	Kathua	64.73%	Sagar Chand		BSP	12,130	25.26%	Lal Chand Sharma		Independent	11,001	22.91%	1,129
66	Billawar	62.45%	Balbir Singh		INC	13,354	36.25%	Rajinder Singh		JKNPP	12,722	34.54%	632
67	Hiranagar	60.75%	Prem Lal		BJP	15,922	35.95%	Girdhari Lal		INC	13,630	30.77%	2,292
68	Samba	56.31%	Som Nath		BSP	14,107	42.08%	Swaran Lata		INC	8,090	24.13%	6,017
69	Vijaypur	67.49%	Surjeet Singh Slathia		JKNC	17,529	35.75%	Manjit Singh		BSP	17,311	35.3%	218
70	Nagrota	64.56%	Ajatshatru Singh		JKNC	7,849	28.32%	Dhan Raj Bargotra		JD	5,731	20.68%	2,118
71	Gandhinagar	50.55%	Choudhary Piara Singh		BJP	19,779	37.6%	Harbans Singh		JKNC	17,142	32.59%	2,637
72	Jammu East	47.14%	Vaid Vishno Dutt		BJP	19,047	58.67%	Raman Bhalla		INC	6,546	20.16%	12,501
73	Jammu West	43.31%	Hans Raj		BJP	22,506	45.67%	Yogesh Sawhney		INC	10,068	20.43%	12,438
74	Bishnah	69.8%	Jagdish Raj Dubey		JD	10,941	26.43%	Hari Chand		BSP	9,057	21.88%	1,884
75	Ranbir Singh Pora–Jammu South	67.95%	Ram Chand		BSP	13,379	38.07%	Romesh Lal		INC	11,850	33.72%	1,529
76	Suchetgarh	71.59%	Chuni Lal		BJP	7,925	26.28%	Gharu Ram Bhagat		INC	7,789	25.83%	136
77	Marh	70.68%	Ajay Sadhotra		JKNC	10,072	29.75%	Sukh Nandan Kumar		BJP	9,259	27.35%	813
78	Raipur Domana	61.69%	Sat Paul		JD	9,076	27.85%	Bansi Lal Bharti		BJP	6,346	19.47%	2,730
79	Akhnoor	72.71%	Govind Ram Sharma		JKNC	8,855	21.02%	Ram Saroop		BJP	8,583	20.38%	272
80	Chhamb	72.07%	Tara Chand		INC	12,663	35.15%	Tej Ram		BJP	12,001	33.31%	662
81	Nowshera	62.63%	Radhay Sham Sharma		INC	20,238	50.7%	Rattan Singh		JKNC	10,702	26.81%	9,536
82	Darhal	55.41%	Chowdhary Mohmmad Hussain		JKNC	14,969	40.91%	Abdul Rashid Mirza		Independent	9,803	26.79%	5,166
83	Rajouri	65.45%	Mohammed Sharief Tariq		JKNC	25,934	50.73%	Chowdhary Talib Hussain		INC	18,048	35.31%	7,886
84	Kalakote	54.96%	Ashok Kumar Sharma		INC	14,169	45.51%	Puran Singh Thakur		JKNC	4,194	13.47%	9,975
85	Surankote	74.26%	Mushtaq Ahmed Shah		JKNC	27,275	57.78%	Aslam Chowdhary Mohammad		INC	18,743	39.71%	8,532
86	Mendhar	68.59%	Nisar Ahmed Khan		JKNC	16,716	37.47%	Javed Ahmed Rana		Independent	14,256	31.95%	2,460
87	Poonch Haveli	66.94%	Ghulam Mohammed Jan		JKNC	16,150	33.81%	Yeshpal Sharma		JD	10,722	22.45%	5,428