Ladakh imbroglio. NC leaders resign en masse over party’s support to Cong candidate in Ladakh

A major political turmoil has erupted in Ladakh. On Monday afternoon, senior National Conference (NC) leader and former Minister Qamar Ali Akhoon announced the mass resignation of leaders from his party over the high command’s decision to support Congress candidate Tsering Namgyal from the Ladakh Lok Sabha seat.

Akhoon said that the party high command mounted pressure on them to support Namgyal, who is the joint candidate of NC and Congress. While the NC’s Ladakh unit has rebelled against the Congress candidate, the Congress unit in Kargil too is not supporting him.

Both the Congress and the NC units in Kargil have decided to extend their support to Mohammad Haneefa Jan, an NC leader now running as an independent candidate.

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Some independent candidates, including Sajad Kargili, a prominent social activist and a powerful voice within Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA), representing various Muslim groups, withdrew their nomination in favour of Jan. Two influential institutions — Islamia School and Khumaini Trust — have also extended their support to Jan.

The NC and the Congress, both part of the INDIA bloc, had sealed a seat sharing agreement on all six Lok Sabha seats of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

According to the agreement, the NC is contesting three seats in Kashmir, while the Congress fielded two candidates in Jammu and one in Ladakh. However, the local Congress unit of Kargil also decided to support Jan, further complicating the situation for the INDIA bloc candidate.

“I hope that the Kargil unit of the Congress unit of Kargil keeps its promise of supporting our consensus candidate,” Sajjad Kargili said.

The Division

The chasm between the Muslim-dominated Kargil and Buddhist-dominated Leh is at the centre of the present controversy. For years, both districts have been locked in rivalry, competing both for political dominance and resources.

Historically, both districts have had different political aspirations. While Leh always sought a separate Union Territory, Kargil wanted to remain as part of Jammu and Kashmir.

Nasir Hussain Munshi, district president of the Congress unit in Leh, told businessline that they had already informed the party’s high command about their decision to field Jan.

“Technical issues arose regarding Jan’s candidature, particularly his non-membership status within the Congress. Consequently, he resigned from the National Conference to facilitate his inclusion as a consensus candidate”, Munshi said.

He said that Kargil had always been discriminated and they wanted to have a representative from the district.

Munshi said that even the members of Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council for Kargil wrote to the Congress high command, requesting them to field Jan from Ladakh, “but they announced the candidature of Namgyal”.

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