India, Nov. 15 -- In a stunning reversal of fortunes just one year after the National Conference (NC) dominated the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections, the ruling party on Friday lost its longstanding stronghold of Budgam to the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and Nagrota to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the by polls on Friday.

In Budgam (central Kashmir), PDP candidate Aga Syed Muntazir Mehdi clinched victory with 21,534 votes, defeating NC's Aga Syed Mehmood (17,382 votes) by a margin of 4,152 votes. An independent candidate, Jibran Dar, disrupted JKNC calculations by siphoning off 7,152 votes, enough to dent Mehmood's tally and hand PDP the edge in a three-way split.

BJP's Syed Mohsin languished in sixth place with a paltry 2...