The BJP has lost a seat on the home turf of Ravinder Raina, Hindutva hardliner and the party’s face in Jammu and Kashmir, prompting rivals to claim the constituency’s predominantly Hindu voters had rejected his brand of “communal politics”.

While the BJP is celebrating its 3 victories from the Kashmir valley’s 140 seats in the District Development Council elections, it has lost ground in Jammu, losing in nearly half the seats.

The party won just 72 of Jammu province’s 140 seats, after bagging 25 of its 37 seats — more than two-thirds — in the 2014 Assembly polls. The BJP had won both of Jammu’s Lok Sabha seats in the last two general elections.

Perhaps the most embarrassing among the BJP’s losses this time came in Raina’s home constituency of Nowshera in Rajouri, where People’s Democratic Party candidate Manohar Singh emerged the surprise winner over BJP rival Mohinder Singh by nearly 3,000 votes.

Nowshera has three DDC seats, and the BJP won the other two. Across Rajouri, however, the party lost more than half the 14 seats.

“Around 98 per cent of voters in my constituency are Hindus, and it’s they who made our win possible,” PDP general secretary Surinder Chowdhary, who led the campaign in the area, told The Telegraph.

“They (BJP) played the communal card but we sought votes in the name of Hindu-Muslim amity and development.”

While the Congress has won no seat from Hindu majority areas in Jammu, the seven-party People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration, which is fighting for restoration of Article 370 and includes the PDP, has done so from a few constituencies after fielding non-Muslim candidates.

Raina, the state BJP chief, has been one of the strongest supporters of the abrogation of Article 370 provisions. Chowdhary said his party had sought votes for secularism, development, restoration of the special status and India-Pakistan talks.

He said Manohar’s victory in Nowshera was a rebuff to Raina’s “communal politics”.

“That man talks about India versus Pakistan, Hindu (versus) Muslim 24 hours a day. But people in the area have rejected his politics,” he said.

“People want peace, development and employment.”

Raina, seen as a loose cannon, had triggered controversy a couple of months ago by saying he would get former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti and Ghulam Nabi Azad to chant “Jai Shri Ram” and wear tilaks.

The BJP claims the PDP – with which it ran a coalition government till June 2018 -- is “anti-national”, an allegation the PDP denies. A BJP leader, Ashwani Chrungoo, lodged a complaint with the Election Commission in October seeking de-recognition of the PDP.

The Gupkar alliance has won 26 seats in Jammu while the Congress has bagged 17. The rest have gone to smaller parties and Independents. Across Jammu and Kashmir, the alliance has won 112 of the 280 seats and the BJP has won 75.

BJP state general secretary Ashok Koul attributed Manohar’s victory to “gunda gardi” (hooliganism) and alleged Chowdhary had roughed up a shopkeeper in the area during his victory rally on Friday.

He said the BJP had done “very well” in six districts of Jammu and “registered our presence” in the rest.

“We have emerged as the largest single party and have the highest vote share. We have made a beginning in Kashmir, where they say we don’t exist…. In future, we will go to the people and remove their misconceptions,” Koul said.