Satisfied by the results for two seats each in Jammu and Kashmir region, National Conference(NC) leader and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah thanked the panchayat members for their "overwhelming support".
"It is an effective reply to detractors of coalition. Overwhelming victory of coalition candidates is heavy jolt to those (PDP leadership) who indulged in malicious propaganda against the coalition and tried their best to create wedge between the workers of Congress and National Conference at grass roots," Omar said.
Around 95 per cent of 35,000 panches and sarpanches came out to vote on December three to elect the MLCs against the backdrop of threats from terror groups and warnings by separatist groups including pro-Pakistan hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
The Chief Minister said the process of transferring funds, functions and functionaries to panchayat institutions will receive considerable fillip in the coming months.
NC's Ali Mohammad Dar defeated PDP's Peer Mohammed Hussain by 2,600 votes to bag the Kashmir(K-1) constituency. Dar secured 8,586 votes against 5,911 polled by Hussain.
For K-2 seat, Ghulam Nabi Monga of Congress beat his PDP rival Yasir Reshi by 2,500 votes. Monga polled 8,659 votes while Reshi secured 6,094 votes.
In the Jammu region, Shyam Lal of Congress defeated his nearest rival Gurmeet Singh of PDP by 7,034 votes to win the Jammu(J-1) seat. Lal secured 9,123 votes while Singh could garner only 2,089 votes.
For the J-2 seat, Shahnaz Ganai of NC defeated her nearest rival Ved Prakash Gupta of PDP by 6,917 votes. Of the 14,812 votes polled, Ganai secured 9,070 votes against Gupta's 2,153 votes.
