Jammu Kashmir Bypolls: The Independent Candidate Everyone Is Talking About
Dar's performance was anything but ordinary. He secured 7,152 votes, 11.33 per cent, finishing third in a contest dominated by Kashmir's heavyweight political families.
Published : November 14, 2025 at 8:08 PM IST
Srinagar: For much of Friday, calls to Jibran Firdous Dar's phone went unanswered. The 35-year-old independent candidate from Hyderpora switched it off soon after the Budgam bypoll results were declared. But even in silence, he made his presence felt. A video quietly uploaded to his Facebook page told his story better than any victory speech.
“Assalamualaikum Budgam ke logon ko meri taraf se salaam…" he began, thanking every mother, sister, elder and young voter who backed him. He promised to value every vote, care for every household and, in a striking twist, offered even more attention to those who did not support him. "Unko hum zyada dekhbhal karenge… Taaki agli baar woh bhi motivate ho," he said.
For someone written off as a long-shot outsider, Dar's performance was anything but ordinary. He secured 7,152 votes, 11.33 per cent, finishing third in a contest dominated by Kashmir's heavyweight political families. PDP's Aga Syed Muntazir Mehdi won with 21,576 votes, and NC's Aga Syed Mahmood Al Mosavi finished second with 17,098.
Yet it was Dar, the mechanical engineer who once tried his hand at acting, who walked away with the political spotlight.
Before Budgam knew him as a politician, Mumbai knew him as a crew member, performer and struggler who refused to give up. Dar says he moved to the city in 2016, working with MTV, Reliance Entertainment, Netflix and Five Faces Production. He managed to act in a few Netflix projects and shared stage appearances with more than 150 Bollywood stars. He had to return due to the pandemic.
And a bigger calling tugged at him — public life.
In 2022, the Aam Aadmi Party appointed him its Youth President for Central Kashmir. Two years later, he broke away and filed his nomination for the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat. He lost, finishing with 5,498 votes, while NC's Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi swept the constituency.
He contested again in the 2024 Assembly elections from Chanapora but managed just 598 votes. A lesser man might have stepped back. Dar instead doubled down.
This time, villagers say, he showed up first at clogged drains, at damaged transformers, at wedding halls, and at grievance corners where larger parties had long stopped appearing.
"Yem karan ne kaam... yem tche khoj... Agar kahin nalki kharab gayi, cho Jibran daars theek karun...," he said in his Facebook message, slipping into Kashmiri with ease. If a drain was choked, he would fix it. If a transformer failed, he would be the first to respond. "People saw him before they saw the big parties," said a resident, Amir Ahmad. "He didn't win the seat, but he has smashed the door and made a mark as a politician."
Dar himself said as much in his video, where he invoked the political machinery arrayed against him, the National Conference, PDP and their senior leaders, many of whom campaigned extensively in Budgam.
"Ninety-year-old party apne saare MLAs ko ground pe laya," he said of the NC. PDP deployed its prominent faces. "But still, unke liye Jibran Dar ko harana aasaan nahi tha."
Dar says he will return to Budgam's villages repeatedly over the next four years, regardless of who holds the constituency. "Chahe PDP jeete ya NC," he said. "In logon, ne kaam nahi karna hai." He vowed to fill that gap, with or without an official mandate.
Also Read
