Kargil celebrates his Ladakh seat win
CEC Kargil, others congratulate Haneefa
Kargil, Jun 04: Coming out victorious in the triangular contest, Mohammed Haneefa Jan, an independent candidate from Kargil district etched a milestone after he won the 1-Ladakh Parliamentary constituency seat defeating his nearest Congress candidate TseringNamgyal by a margin of 27,862 votes in the LokSabha Election-2024, officials said.
As the vote counting started, the independent candidate was leading in the contest from the beginning, especially from his home district. The two other candidates in fray were TseringNamgyal of Indian National Congress and TashiGyalson of BharatiyaJanata Party.
Later in the day he continued to lead in all the counting rounds and got 65,259 votes out of 135,524 total votes that were polled across the Ladakh region on May 21.
A resident of Kargil, Haneefa was declared winner by Returning Officer, 1-Ladakh Parliamentary Constituency, SantoshSukhadeve in Leh soon after counting ended.
The Independent candidate came out with a staggering margin of 27,862 votes defeating Indian National Congress candidate TseringNamgyal who secured 37,397 votes. The BJP candidate, TashiGyalson secured 31,956 votes at the third place and 912 votes went to NOTA (None of the Above).
After being declared winner Haneefa thanked people of Leh and Kargil districts for making him victorious. He said that the result of 1-Ladakh Parliamentary Constituency was much better than his expectations.
There was jubilation across Kargil market as his supporters came out and burst firecrackers to celebrate the win which was historic and long awaited for the people.
“Hundreds of locals marched from Baroo to main market Kargil raising flags and placards in favour of the winning candidate and in favour of the win from Kargil district,” said one of the supporters of the winning candidate. This was the first LokSabha election conducted after the abrogation of Article 370.
The Election Commission of India conducted the LS Election for 543 seats in seven phases in which 1-Ladakh Parliamentary Constituency voted on May 20 in 5th phase. There were a total of 577 polling stations in Ladakh which included 298 in Leh and 279 in Kargil district.
Officials said counting in Leh district was held at SindhuSanskriti Kendra (SSK) under the supervision of Returning Officer, 1-Ladakh Parliamentary Constituency, SantoshSukhadeve and Counting Observer, ECI, Shilpa Gupta.
Similarly, in Kargil district the counting was conducted at Kurbathang counting centre under the supervision of District Election Officer (DEO), ShrikantSuse.
Earlier, the political events had unfolded in Kargil before the filling of nominations of papers. Haneefa was given mandate as an independent candidate, the Indian National Congress (INC) and the National Conference had made a significant move regarding their joint candidate for the LS elections.
They had stated that both INC and NC declared their unanimous decision to field Haneefa as their joint candidate for the Ladakh parliamentary constituency.
But later, in a dramatic turn of events, the District Unit of the Jammu Kashmir National Conference in Pertinent to mention here, Kargil had resigned collectively, citing intense pressure from the party’s central leadership to support the “India Block” Congress candidate, TseringNamgyal.
This decision had thrown the region’s political landscape into disarray and sparked concerns and anger about the internal unity of the JKNC.
Haneefa, as an independent candidate for LokSabha Election from 1- Ladakh Parliamentary Constituency was unanimously supported by all political and religious institutions.
Political observers said they had thought that the division of votes between BJP and Congress in Leh could play into the hands of independent candidate Haneefa, consolidating support from Kargil.
Qamar Ali Akhoon, the former minister, had emphasized that the resignations were made in the interest of Kargil region’s welfare and had hoped that their independent candidate would make it to the parliamentary race.
Notably, two other independent candidates from Kargil, SajjadKargilli and Kacho Muhammad Feroz, had withdrawn their nomination papers to support for Ladakh Democratic Alliance candidate, Haneefa.
The ECI had provided the facility of postal ballot to Absentee Voter Senior Citizen (AVSC), Absentee Voter Person with Disabilities (AVPD) which included PWDs with benchmark disability of 40 percent and more and Absentee Voter Essential Services (AVES).
Ladakh, the largest constituency in the country in terms of area, witnessed a 71.82 percent voter turnout: 67.14 percent in Leh district and 76.15 percent in Kargil district.
Meanwhile, several political leaders and religious groups congratulated Haneefa on his win. CEC Kargil, Dr JafferAkhone has congratulated Haneefa on getting a clear mandate from the people of Ladakh and winning the seat with a massive margin.
SajjadKargil, a prominent Kargil-based activist and young politician also congratulated the winner for the massive victory.
“I hope you will represent the people of Ladakh in a deserved manner and convey our message to the Govt. that the people of Ladakh have rejected bifurcation of the state and abrogation of Article 370,” he said.
He said people of Ladakh are struggling on four point demands including statehood and sixth schedule. “If government can’t fulfil our demands then they should give us back our erstwhile J&K State. Ladakhis can’t accept any undemocratic setup,” Sajjad said.
