Congress-NC alliance secure win on 17 seats in key Ladakh poll

Digital Desk: The National Conference and Congress jointly won 17 seats, crossing the halfway point in the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC)-Kargil elections. Results for 20 of the 26 seats up for election on October 4 have been announced, and the vote count is still ongoing.

The 30-member Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC)-Kargil receives nominations from the administration for four voting members.

This election is significant since it is the first important vote after Article 370 was repealed on August 5, 2019, and the Ladakh Union territory was established.

According to officials, the National Conference (NC) got nine seats, while its ally, the Congress, gained eight. Two seats were won by the BJP, and one seat was won by an Independent. In the majority of the 26 seats, there was a triangle race between the NC, Congress, and BJP.

The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference's vice president celebrated the victory and thanked the electorate on social media. Abdullah wrote a "Thank you" in the caption of his post on X (previously Twitter) hours after the result was announced, along with images of the victory celebrations.

The election saw a 77.61 percent voter turnout, with 74,026 of the 95,388 eligible voters exercising their right to vote.

The previous council presided over by Feroz Ahmad Khan of the NC, finished its five-year tenure on October 1. Before October 11, the newly elected council members will assume their positions.

Despite having a pre-election agreement, the NC and Congress both fielded 17 and 22 candidates, respectively. Both parties made it clear that the agreement was only applicable to regions where they had to contend with the BJP's aggressive opposition.

The BJP, which had won one seat in the last election and eventually raised its total to three by merging two PDP councillors, fielded 17 candidates this time. 25 Independent candidates competed as well as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which ran for four seats.

In addition, 278 polling stations around the district used electronic voting machines for the first time in council elections during this election.