Fractures have emerged within the INDIA bloc over the choosing of a candidate for the lone Lok Sabha seat in Ladakh.
The local Congress leaders and the National Conference leaders on Wednesday proposed the name of Haji Hanifa Jan as the INDIA bloc candidate for the Ladakh Parliament seat. Jan is the district president of NC.
However, the move contrasted with the Congress High Command's decision, which nominated T Namgayal, the opposition leader in the Leh Hill Development Council (LADHC), as the party's official nominee.
Sajjad Kargili, the leader of the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA), clarified that both the NC and the Congress have independently selected their candidates. "As a core committee member of KDA, I would like to clarify that both NC and Congress have independently selected their candidates for the Ladakh Lok Sabha seat within their respective parties. As of now, not a single meeting of KDA was held on this matter," Kargili said in a post on X.
According to the understanding within the INDIA bloc, the NC and the Congress were supposed to contest three Lok Sabha seats each in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh Union Territories (UTs). The NC has fielded candidates in all three Lok Sabha constituencies in Kashmir, including Anantnag-Rajouri. The NC and the PDP have lent support to the Congress on two seats-Udhampur and Jammu- in Jammu. It was expected that the NC would support the Congress in Ladakh against the BJP.
However, the nomination of Jan as a 'joint candidate' has put the workers of the two parties at odds with each other. A Congress leader said the NC did not inform them about naming Jan as their candidate.
Earlier, the NC’s decision to announce its candidate from Anantnag-Rajouri had upset the PDP. PDP president Mehbooba Mufti had criticised the NC for not consulting her party before announcing its candidate from the constituency. She said the regional partners of the INDIA alliance in Jammu and Kashmir had entrusted NC president Farooq Abdullah with the decision to announce the candidates for the three seats in Kashmir, but the NC named its candidates without consulting them. After the acrimony with the NC, Mehbooba jumped into the fray from Anantnag-Rajouri and is now the main rival against the NC since the BJP has decided not to field its candidate from the constituency.
Crisis in BJP too
The BJP also is facing a crisis as party candidate Tashi Gyalson, chairman-cum-CEC, filed his nomination papers, but sitting MP Jamyang Tsering Namgayal, whose supporters on social media declared him as the Independent candidate from Ladakh, skipped the event.
The BJP won the Ladakh seat in 2014 and 2019, with Thupstan Chhewang and Namgayal emerging as winners, respectively. A BJP leader told The Week that efforts are on to persuade Namgyal to drop his opposition to Gyalson’s candidature.
On April 30, Namgyal obtained a nomination form from the Returning Officer as an Independent candidate despite persuasions by BJP national general secretary, in charge J&K, Tarun Chug, and Union Minister Kiren Rijiju. Namgayal has been mobilising support after being denied the ticket by the party. Observers believe if Namgyal contests as an Independent, it will hurt the prospects of the BJP, which is already facing an angry electorate over the refusal to grant Sixth Schedule status to Ladakh.
The KDA and Leh Apex Body (LAB), a coalition of different socio-religious groups backed by the influential Ladakh Buddhists Association (LBA), have joined forces to press for their demand for Statehood and Sixth Schedule for the region. The demand gained speed after Ladakh was granted a UT status following its separation from Jammu and Kashmir on August 5, 2019.
The residents of Leh celebrated the UT status while those in Kargil opposed it. However, after realising that the protection that Article 370 conferred to land, jobs, and the unique identity of Ladakh no longer existed after the abrogation of Article 370, the LAB joined forces with KDA for constitutional safeguards. The agitation has garnered nationwide attention after climate protection activist Sonam Wangchuk observed a 21-day hunger strike in support of the demand. The BJP leaders say the Centre has agreed to provide all constitutional safeguards applicable to Ladakh, but LAB and KDA are adamant about the nomenclature.