Four-cornered contest likely in Ladakh

Arteev Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, April 18

The Ladakh parliamentary seat seems to be heading for a quadrilateral contest as two Independent candidates, including a Congress rebel, filed their papers from the seat on the last day of nominations on Thursday.

The NC, PDP and influential Islamia School Kargil-supported ‘consensus’ candidate Sajjad Hussain Kargili and Imam Khomeni Memorial Trust, Kargil-backed former MLA Asgar Ali Karbalaie filed their papers before the Assistant Returning Officer, Kargil.

The scrutiny of nomination papers will be held on April 20, while the candidates can withdraw their nominations by April 22.

Congress rebel Karbalaie’s decision to contest the elections is being seen as a major setback to the party in Ladakh. The party has fielded its senior Buddhist leader Rigzin Spalbar, who has served as Chief Executive Councillor (CEC) in the powerful Leh Council twice, as its official candidate as it fears that it would divide the party’s vote, giving an edge to the opposition's candidate.

“All major political and religious groups of Kargil have posed faith in me and fielded me as a ‘unity candidate’. It is the unity which Kargil showed while struggling for divisional headquarters in the district. If any other candidate has decided to contest the Lok Sabha elections, I would request him to withdraw his candidature in the larger interest of Kargil,” Kargili claimed after filing his papers.

The BJP has fielded the incumbent CEC of the Leh Council Jamyang Tsering Namgyal from the seat but the saffron party has been struggling with anti-incumbency factor, particularly after the resignation of its MP Thupstan Chhewang from the party as well as Parliament.

Recently, the saffron party, in its bid to retrieve the lost ground, played a ‘trump card’ by granting the divisional status to Ladakh to mollify the groups struggling long in favour of their demand for the Union Territory status for the region.

During the 2014 parliamentary polls, the Congress had suffered defeat in Ladakh after its rebel leader Ghulam Raza decided to contest as an Independent candidate. Backed by the Islamia School Kargil and other groups in Kargil, Raza was defeated by BJP leader Thupstan Chhewang by a narrow margin of 36 votes.

8 nominations filed

A total of eight nominations have been filed for the Ladakh parliamentary seat. On the last date of filing nominations on Thursday, five candidates who included Tsering Namgyal, Asgar Ali Karbalai, Sajjad Hussain, Kacho Mohammad Feroz and Asgar Ali, all Independents, filed their papers taking the total to eight.

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