"I accept the verdict of the people": Mehbooba Mufti's daughter Iltija concedes defeat

Iltija finally accepted defeat thanking he people for the affection she got while on the campaign trail.

"I accept the verdict of the people. The love and affection I received from everyone in Bijbehara will always stay with me. Gratitude to my PDP workers who worked so hard throughout this campaign," she said.

Therefore, Bashir Ahmad Shah Veeri of the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference has taken the lead with 22,194 votes, ahead by a comfortable margin of 5,067 votes.

Meanwhile, Election Commission of India released at 12:40 AM on Tuesday have indicated that in Jammu and Kashmir, the Jammu Kashmir National Conference and Congress alliance are leading with 50 seats. The counting is still underway. The Bharatiya Janata Party is leading with 286 seats. As per the election commission data between 6-15 rounds of counting have been completed in most of the 90 constituencies in the region.

The voting results decide the electoral fate of several former ministers including Tara Chand, Muzaffar Baig, Raman Bhalla, Basharat Bukha along with Omar Abdullah, Ravinder Raina, Yousuf Tarigami and several others.

Meanwhile, on October 5, People's Democratic Party (PDP) candidate from Lal Chowk Assembly seat Zuhaib Yousuf Mir hinted that they can join the National Conference-Congress alliance to keep the Bharatiya Janata Party out of power.

He said, "As far as we are concerned, exit polls are not a serious activity but time pass activity. PDP is confident that it will be an indispensable and important part of the secular government that will form in J-K. PDP will have an important role in forming any secular government. We had said that we are ready to take any step to save the identity of Kashmir but for this, it is important that we formulate a secular government, a government against BJP not with them." (ANI)