Congress leader Chaudhary Lal Singh on Tuesday in Jammu and Kashmir by 16,034 votes to Darshan Kumar of the Bharatiya Janata Party, according to data from the Election Commission.

Kumar won the seat with 31,874 votes while Singh, a former minister in the Jammu and Kashmir Cabinet, secured a total of 15,840 votes.

In the 2014 Assembly polls, Singh won the Basohli seats after switching from the Congress to the BJP. He rejoined the Congress in March, just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

In 2018, Singh, who was a state minister in the coalition government consisting of the BJP and the People’s Democratic Party, stirred controversy by attending a rally in support of the accused persons in the of a minor Muslim girl in Jammu and Kashmir’s district.

Singh had defended his participation in the rally at the time, saying that he was the situation.

In September, a group of former civil servants for fielding Singh in the Assembly elections.

In a letter to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, the Constitutional Conduct Group said that Singh’s nomination “defied explanation that a party which has taken on itself the mantle of leading the fight against the...