- By Mayukh Debnath
- Tue, 08 Oct 2024 10:28 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Mehraj Malik Profile: The Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday established its presence in the polity of Jammu and Kashmir with the victory of its candidate Mehraj Malik (36) from the Doda Assembly constituency. The party had fielded seven candidates in the Assembly election, which was the first in J-K after 2014 and since the 2019 abrogation of Article 370, which accorded special status to the esrtwhile state of same name.
Though the other six AAP candidates failed to win their respective seats, Malik's victory outshined the overall performance of the party. He defeated his closest competitor, BJP's Gajay Singh Rana, by a margin of 4,470 votes. The Doda seat was won by the BJP in the 2014 J-K Assembly election.
Kejriwal took to social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) to congratulate Malik for his victory. In a post in Hindi, the former Delhi CM wrote, "I congratulate AAP's Doda candidate Mehraj Malik for his grand victory by defeating the BJP candidate. You fought a great election."
WHO IS AAP DODA MLA MEHRAJ MALIK?
- Mehraj Malik joined the AAP in 2013.
- He is a serving councilor representing Kahara in the District Development Council (DDC) Council of Doda. Malik was elected to the district-level body in 2020 as an independent candidate.
- He was appointed the co-chair of AAP's J-K coodination committee in 2022.
- Malik contested the recent Lok Sabha election from the Udhampur-Kathua constituency as an independent candidate. The seat was eventually won by BJP leader and Union Minister Jitendra Singh.
- In the 2014 J-K Assembly election, Malik contested the Bhaderwah seat but managed to garner only 365 votes. BJP's Daleep Singh emerged victorious in the fray.
- Malik holds a postgraduate degree.
(With inputs from agencies)