Senior Congress leader and leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad was on Saturday re-elected to Rajya Sabha from Jammu and Kashmir.

Besides Azad, two Peoples Democratic Party candidates -- Fayaz Ahmed Mir and Nazir Ahmad Laway -- and Bharatiya Janata Party’s Shamsher Singh Manhas have been declared winner in the elections.

Both the PDP and the BJP jointly supported each other in Saturday’s election while Azad was supported by the National Conference and the help of M Y Tarigami of Communist Party of India-Marxist and independent MLAs Hakeem Yasin and Engineer Rashid.

Azad’s victory meant that another BJP candidate Chander Mohan Sharma tasted defeat polling 28 votes against 30 of the Congress leader. Laway secured 29 votes.

The joint vote by the PDP and BJP is the first tangible indication of the two inching closer to forming a government together in the state.

The PDP emerged as the single largest party in the recently concluded state assembly polls bagging 28 seats while the BJP got 25 in a house of 87. 

-- With inputs from PTI