Tsering Namgyal defeats NC-PDP candidate in Ladakh constituency

Arteev Sharma 

Tribune News Service 

JAMMU, MAY 23

Ladakh, India’s largest parliamentary seat geographically, again fell into BJP’s kitty as it elected 33-year-old Jamyang Tsering Namgyal as its new representative in the Lok Sabha. 

 Namgyal, the incumbent Chief Executive Councilor (CEC) of Leh Council, defeated his rival, Independent candidate Sajjad Hussain Kargili, who was backed by National Conference, PDP and influential Islamia School Kargil (ISK), in the close contest by a margin of about 10,000 votes. 

 Counting of votes on the seat was affected for some time after three EVMs were reportedly found not sealed properly. The details regarding number of service voters were still awaited.

 BJP’s victory on the seat was attributed to strong ideological differences between Buddhists and Shia Muslims in Ladakh region, Modi wave, grant of divisional status to Ladakh region and deep factionalism within the Congress party. The BJP’s win became significant as the party was also riddled with strong internal differences following the resignation of Thupstan Chhewang, its tallest leader in Ladakh, in November last year. 

 During the 2014 parliamentary poll, the BJP had won the seat for the first time by a margin of just 36 votes when its candidate Thupstan Chhewang secured 31,111 votes, while the runner up, Ghulam Raza, got 31,075 votes. A total of 1,18,029 votes were polled in Ladakh at that time. 

 According to the official statistics, Namgyal secured 41,315 votes out of total 1,23,293 polled votes, while Sajjad Kargili got 31,552 votes. Congress official candidate Rigzin Spalbar managed to get 20,447 votes while the party’s rebel candidate from Kargil, Asgar Ali Karbalai, stood third by securing 29,069 votes. As many as 910 voters preferred NOTA button over the contesting candidates. 

 “This is a big achievement for BJP, given the margin of victory on a seat having such small number of voters. The issue of Union Territory (UT) for Ladakh was the top priority for me and this election was between the parties favouring UT demand and those against it. People have voted for the UT status because it is the BJP that has always been supporting this demand at regional, state and national level,” Namgyal said. 

 “This election was a one-way traffic as Congress was a divided house in Ladakh while the Independent candidate’s influence was limited to a few pockets only,” he added. 

Cong factionalism gave saffron party edge

• In Ladakh, the BJP took the advantage of Congress’ factionalism and J&K Governor’s decision of granting divisional status to the region in February this year. 
• The party also made inroads into Shia Muslim-dominated Kargil district, where it secured 10,348 votes, as compared to 3,302 votes during the 2014 Lok Sabha poll
• On the contrary, runner-up Sajjad Kargili, a Shia, secured only 1,787 votes from Buddhist-dominated Leh district
• Two major controversies, including media bribery case and returning officer’s letter to Army to sensitise its officers to maintain the sanctity of electoral process, failed to halt the BJP’s victory march in this arid region. Heading to come here Headline to