SRINAGAR: The Ladakh administration has issued a fresh election notification for Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) Kargil polls after the Supreme Court set aside earlier notification for polls.
Now as per the fresh notification, the poll for LAHDC Kargil will be held on October 4 and after the apex court verdict, the National Conference will be contesting the polls on its ‘plough’ symbol.
The Election Authority of Ladakh scrapped the previous poll schedule for LAHDC Kargil. Earlier, the polls were scheduled to be held on September 10. The LAHDC Kargil has 30 members. Of the 30 councillors, 26 are elected through election while four are nominated from minorities and women. As per the new notification, the process for filing nomination papers for LAHDC Kargil will start on September 9 while the last date for filing nominations has been fixed on September 16.
The scrutiny of nominations would take place on September 18 and candidates can withdraw their papers on September 20. The polling would be held on October 4 and counting would take place on October 8. The entire election process will be completed before October 11. Meanwhile, J&K’s grand old party National Conference (NC), which is a major party in Kargil, will be contesting the LAHDC Kargil polls on its “plough” symbol.
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Earlier, the Ladakh administration had refused to allot a “plough” symbol to NC by treating the party candidates as independent candidates. The NC had first moved J&K and Ladakh High Court and then SC. On September 7, NC got a shot in the arm after the Supreme Court allotted the “plough” symbol to the party and imposed a cost of `1 lakh on the Ladakh UT administration.
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Along with NC, Congress and BJP are the main political parties in Muslim-dominated Kargil district. The NC and Congress have already reached an understanding on seat sharing. The NC-Congress combine will be facing a challenge from BJP and independent candidates.
The LAHDC Kargil polls assume significance as people in Kargil have strongly opposed the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of J&K state into two UTs and now demand constitutional safeguards under 6th Schedule.
