Independent Candidate Enters Ladakh Polls, Makes It 3-Corner Fight
NDTV
The agitation had intensified on March 6 with Leh observing a complete shutdown followed by a 66-day hunger strike which was suspended three days ago in view of the Lok Sabha elections.
What should have been a direct contest between the BJP and the Congress in the Ladakh Lok Sabha constituency is now a three-corner fight with an alliance of local groups fielding an Independent to challenge the national parties.
The seat, the largest in the country in terms of area (173.266 square kilometers), goes to polls on May 20 -- the first major electoral battle in the region after it was carved out of Jammu and Kashmir and granted Union Territory status in 2019. While the BJP has fielded Tashi Gyalson, chief executive councilor-cum-chairman of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (Leh), from the seat after dropping sitting MP Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, the Congress has nominated Tsering Namgyal as its candidate. Springing a surprise, the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) fielded Haji Haneefa Jan, the Kargil district president of the National Conference (NC), which like the Congress is a constituent of the INDIA bloc.
The Congress has won the seat for the highest number of times -- six -- and had fielded Tsering Namgyal, the leader of opposition in the LAHDC, according to an agreement with the NC, as they were members of the INDIA bloc and the Leh Apex Body (LAB).
