New Delhi: The Congress on Friday declared Tsering Namgyal, a Buddhist, as the party candidate in the Ladakh parliamentary constituency to mobilise support from the ally National Conference and to counter the BJP. According to party insiders, Ladakh politics are divided between the Leh and Kargil areas, which are dominated by the Buddhist and Shia Muslim communities respectively. Cracks appeared in the INDIA bloc recently when some Congress and NC leaders from Kargil announced the name of Haji Hanifa Jan as their joint candidate for the Ladakh Lok Sabha seat against the official nominee Tsering Namgyal.
“Usually, the two communities oppose each other due to cultural and regional factors during the local polls, but come together in the national elections,” said a senior AICC functionary. Tsering Namgyal, a Buddhist from Leh, is expected to benefit from the Congress-NC alliance that won in the Ladakh autonomous council polls held last year, said party insiders. He will be pitted against BJP’s Tashi Gyalson, chief executive councillor of the Ladakh autonomous council in Leh, and is expected to divide the community votes.
“This is a very good decision. Our two candidates in the Jammu region are giving a tough fight to the BJP. Tsering Namgyal as the INDIA bloc nominee will certainly have an edge over the BJP candidate in Ladakh. The BJP may well end up with zero seats in the region,” AICC in-charge J&K Bharatsinh Solanki told ETV Bharat.
After the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, which gave a special status to Jammu and Kashmir, the erstwhile state was divided into two UTs, Jammu and Kashmir, which has five Lok Sabha seats, and Ladakh, which has one Lok Sabha seat. In the previous 2019 national polls, the BJP had won three seats Udhampur, Jammu and Ladakh while the NC had won three Srinagar, Baramulla and Anantnag.
In 2024, as per a pact with the NC, the Congress is contesting the Udhampur and Jammu seats besides the Ladakh seat while the ally is contesting the remaining three Srinagar, Baramulla and Anantnag. Last year, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had campaigned in the Ladakh area for a week, which helped the alliance in the council polls. Tsering Namgyal had accompanied Rahul then, said party insiders.
According to party insiders, like in Jammu and Kashmir people of the Ladakh region also want a restoration of statehood at the earliest as they are missing the Constitutional safeguards available through Article 370. “The Ladakh people want their statehood back. That is a strong sentiment in the region and there have been massive protests for the same recently. Nominating a Buddhist as our nominee was a strategic decision and will pay off, "Jammu & Kashmir Congress spokesperson Ravinder Sharma told ETV Bharat.
“The people of Jammu region also now feel that they have been emotionally blackmailed by the BJP over the past years and feel cheated. In 2019, most people got carried away over the removal of Article 370, but are now missing the constitutional safeguards that were available to them. They are angry with the BJP,” he said. According to party insiders, the BJP’s pro-power formula might be working in the border region, but the ideological component had weakened.
After the Election Commission recently deferred the polls for the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha constituency scheduled for May 7 and fixed May 25 as the new date, a senior AICC functionary said, “The BJP wants INDIA bloc candidates to be defeated at any cost. Therefore, they strategically did not field a candidate in Anantnag against PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti pitted against INDIA bloc nominee Mian Altaf. There was no reason for the Election Commission to postpone the polling date in Anantnag.”
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