PDP set to win most seats in valley, Omar shocked

Srinagar, Dec 23: The PDP and the National Conference Tuesday virtually swept the Kashmir Valley though Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was worsted in one of the two places where he contested. Amid hung assembly predictions, the main contest between the National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party was confined to the 46 constituencies in the valley. In the outgoing 87-member assembly, the National Conference had 28 seats and PDP 21. While the PDP of former chief minister Mufti Mohammed Saeed has made inroads into some National Conference bastions, the latter has surprised the PDP too. Omar Abdullah's victory from Beerwah is a shocker to the PDP, although he lost from Sonwar in Srinagar. Forecasts that the PDP would get closer to a simple majority of 44 seats in the 87-member assembly were proved wrong. PDP senior leader Muzaffar Hussain Baig said it would be a rude shock if his party did not win at least 35 seats, a figure which still eludes the party. But no single party has managed to win enough seats in the assembly to take power on its own.