Ganderbal (J&K): Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah on September 24 dubbed the talk of anti-incumbency wave in voting in the ongoing Assembly elections as a propaganda and was confident that the National Conference (NC) would retain power.

"The talk of anti-incumbency wave is a propaganda and October 10 (counting day) would prove wrong those spreading this," said Abdullah after casting his vote in a polling booth in Ganderbal constituency, a stronghold of the Abdullah family for decades.

The Chief Minister's son and Union Minister Omar Abdullah, who is making his debut in Assembly elections from this constituency, said that he would win by a good margin. His main rival is People's Democratic Party's (PDP) Qazi Mohammad Afzal.

Minister of state for Defence Chaman Lal Gupta said in Jammu after exercising his franchise that the kind of voter turnout so far in the Assembly polls was a "fitting reply" to the designs of Pakistan to disrupt the four phased polls.

Gupta said that a hung Assembly would emerge in the elections to the 87-member Assembly and that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would have the balance of power in installing the new government. "The government will be one which BJP wants," he added.

PTI