The BJP’s Surankote candidate, Mushtaq Bukhari, who played a key role in the party’s outreach among Pahari Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir, died of cardiac arrest on Wednesday.

Bukhari, 75, died a day after the three-phase Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir ended. He was one of the few Muslim faces on whom the BJP had banked for success in the polls.

“He contested on a BJP ticket from Surankote (in Poonch) on September 25 and died ahead of the results,” BJP’s Jammu and Kashmir chief Ravinder Raina told reporters in Poonch.

The veteran Pahari leader had a decades-long association with the National Conference (NC) but severed his ties with the party in 2022 to fight for reservation for Paharis. He had also served as an NC minister.

In February, he joined the BJP after the Centre granted Scheduled Tribe status to Paharis and was later fielded from Surankote. This is the first time in the country’s history that a linguistic group has been granted the ST tag.

Paharis are a linguistic group that is majority Muslim but include a significant number of Hindus. The group includes upper castes from Muslim and Hindu communities such as Syeds and Brahmins. The Paharis are a majority in Jammu’s Pir Panchal region.

A BJP leader said Bukhari collapsed at his home at Pamrote in Poonch district. He is survived by his wife, two daughters and a son. Family sources said he had not been keeping well for a long time. Thousands participated in his last rites.

BJP state president Ravinder Raina said he was deeply saddened and shocked by Bukhari’s death.