Kargil, May 17: Ladakh Lok Sabha constituency is set for a triangular contest between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress and an independent candidate.
The decision of Kargil units of National Conference and Congress to field an independent candidate, rather than supporting the I.N.D.I.A bloc, has led to a three-way contest. The other contenders being the BJP and the Congress led I.N.D.I.A bloc candidate.
BJP has fielded Tashi Gyalson, chief executive councilor-cum-chairman of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (Leh), from the constituency after dropping sitting MP Jamyang Tsering Namgyal. The Congress has nominated Tsering Namgyal as its official candidate. Springing a surprise, the Ladakh Democratic Alliance (LDA) newly constituted body, an amalgam of social, political, religious and trade organisations including two major political parties National Conference and Congress of Kargil unit fielded Haji Haneefa Jan, the Kargil district president of the National Conference (NC), which like the Congress is a constituent of the INDIA bloc. Both the NC and Congress units in Kargil have not paid any heed to the appeal of the High command of NC, Congress to allow a direct contest between INDIA bloc candidate Tsering Namgyal and BJP’s Gyalson.
The voting for the Ladakh Parliamentary Constituency is scheduled to take place during the fifth phase of the polls on May 20. This marks the region’s first independent polling for a single seat having previously been a constituency under the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. Ladakh holds the distinction of being India’s largest constituency in terms of area. Strategically it shares borders with Pakistan along the line of control (LoC) and China along the line of actual control (LAC).
Political observers are of the view that with the LDA (Kargil) fielding a joint candidate on Ladakh seat, it will be a quite interesting contest and can throw a surprise. The Ladakh Lok Sabha seat is spread over Leh and Kargil districts. It has a total number of 184571 electors, of which (95,926) in Kargil district and 88,877 in Leh district. Kargil district has about 7000 more electorate than Leh district.
After attaining UT status, Ladakh witnessed elections to both Leh and Kargil Autonomous Hill Development Councils in October 2020 and 2023, respectively. Leh Hill Development Council is being ruled by the BJP for second consecutive term while NC-Congress have jointly formed the Kargil Hill Development Council in the elections held last year. BJP won Ladakh Parliamentary seat for two consecutive terms in 2014 and 2019. While Thupstan Chhewang won the seat for the first time for the BJP in 2014, Jamyang Tsering Namgyal emerged victorious in 2019. In the 2019 parliamentary elections, BJP leader Jamyang Tsering Namgyal won the Lok Sabha seat of Ladakh with a margin of 10,930 votes against independent candidate Sajjad Hussain Kargili. The National Conference, which holds considerable influence in Kargil district and has also won the seat or backed the Independents who emerged victorious in the past.
Meanwhile, amid intensified Lok Sabha poll campaigning, which also saw several BJP leaders, including national general secretary Tarun Chugh, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju, reaching out to the voters, BJP candidate Tashi Gyalson had said his primary focus will be resumption of dialogue between the Centre and the Ladakh leadership for resolution of “pending issues”.
On the other hand, Congress candidate Tsering Namgyal said his party has taken a historic decision to include granting sixth schedule to Ladakh in its manifesto. “We will forcefully raise the demands within and outside Parliament to fulfill the aspirations of the people of Ladakh,” he said.
Independent candidate Haji Hanifa Jan during his campaigning has said that he will work and raise the four demands including Statehood for Ladakh, Constitutional Safeguards under Sixth Schedule, separate Lok Sabha seats for Kargil and Leh besides a Public service commission for Ladakh. Jan said that he will carry forward the struggle of Leh Apex Body and Kargil Democratic Alliance regarding the fulfillment of these four demands.
Notably, for the voters, the Ladakh administration has set up 577 polling stations. The administration has made special arrangements including air sorties for the polling staff to ferry them to remote areas so that no voters are left behind. In the 2019 elections, the Ladakh constituency witnessed a notable voter turnout of 76.4 per cent. The Chief electoral officer of UT Ladakh along with the administration is arranging various programmes to spread awareness amongst the general and first-time voters in particular.
District Election Office, Leh has made dedicated arrangements for voters in old age and people with special needs, ensures their participation through postal ballots.