INDIA bloc’s master stroke on BJP in Ladakh: Congress candidate fighting BJP in Leh, NC candidate in Kargil

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz. Updated: 5/8/2024 12:58:10 AM Front Page

SRINAGAR: The en bloc resignation of the National Conference's entire Kargil unit, including former Minister Qamar Ali Akhoon, in defiance to the party headquarters' directive to vote for the INDIA bloc candidate Tsering Namgyal, at its face appears to be a big setback for Farooq Abdullah's party and a huge price for its pre-poll alliance with Congress. That is how the media has widely interpreted this unique political development in the Union Territory of Ladakh.
But for political analysts it can also be a strategic retake of the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, when National Conference (NC) officially supported the NC-Congress alliance candidate Phuntsog Namgyal of Congress but its Kargil vote-bank went out for independent candidate Ghulam Hassan Khan and got him elected.
This time again, Congress has asserted and fielded its own Buddhist candidate Tsering Namgyal of Leh in Ladakh as per the INDIA bloc share of seats in the UTs of J&K and Ladakh.
In Kargil, however, the 2019 runner up Sajjad Kargili and Kacho Mohammad Feroz have dramatically withdrawn from the fray and NC's District President Haji Mohammad Haneefa has emerged as a consensus candidate with support of both NC and Congress in the district.
Now there are two Buddhist candidates of Leh (Tashi Gyalson of BJP and Tsering Namgyal of Congress) and one Muslim candidate of Kargil (Haji Mohammad Haneefa) in a triangular contest in the Ladakh Lok Sabha constituency which is scheduled to go for polling on the 20th of May.
Notwithstanding the NC headquarters' directive and its Kargil unit's defiance and en bloc resignation in protest, Farooq Abdullah’s NC is likely to own the potential winner Haji Mohammad Haneefa immediately after the declaration of the results much like he owned Ghulam Hassan Khan after his winning in 2009.
With this strategy NC could keep both its alliance partner Congress as well as its conventional Muslim votebank in Kargil-Zanskar in good humour. This novel strategy appears to be based on the assumption of the division of the Buddhist vote in Leh and unification of the Muslim vote in Kargil. At the end of the day, whatever leads to the BJP candidate's defeat will be in the interest of the INDIA bloc and welcome to both the opposition parties.
In the Lok Sabha elections of 2009, NC and Congress, running a coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir, were in a pre-poll alliance. The Congress party fielded Phutsog Namgyal, a Buddhist of Leh, as the coalition candidate in Ladakh. Ghulam Hassan Khan, enjoying the support of the majority of Muslims in Kargil-Zanskar, stayed put as an independent candidate.
Even as the Congress party’s Asgar Karbalayi, who had been elected as MLA from Kargil in 2002, also stayed put as an independent candidate and polled 24,498 votes, Ghulam Hassan Khan was returned with 32,701 votes. Thinless Angmo of Leh cut away the Buddhist candidates sizable vote. She polled 22,717 votes.
Immediately after the results were declared, Dr Farooq Abdullah admitted that Mr Khan was his candidate in Ladakh. He was admitted into the coalition and represented Ladakh in the Lok Sabha as a leader of the NC-Congress coalition.
Again in 2014, despite an alliance, NC and Congress fielded two candidates from Leh and Kargil against the BJP candidate ThustanChhewang. That time, however, both of them lost and the BJP candidate won.
“Before 2009, Congress had the tradition of fielding multiple candidates on the one seat in Ladakh. After 2009, National Conference too adopted the same policy”, Sajad Kargili who, as an independent candidate polled 31,984 votes and stood second to BJP’s Jamyang Tsering Namgyal in 2019, told The News Now.
Sajjad Kargili as well as Qamar Ali Akhoon, who was returned several times as NC’s MLA from Kargil and functioned as a Minister in Farooq Abdullah’s and Omar Abdullah’s governments, said that the independent candidate Haji Mohammad Haneefa’s victory was “100 percent sure this time”.
“But even on Mr Tsering Namgyal’s victory we will be happy. Our objective is to defeat the BJP candidate and we have strategized it meticulously this time. Whether Namgyal wins or Haji Haneefa, the winner will be a member of the INDIA bloc”, Akhoon added. He said that the “consensus candidate” of NC and Congress Haji Haneefa was enjoying the support of every political, social and religious organisation excluding the BJP.
“Congress had made a commitment to its Kargil leader Asgar Karbalai that the ticket would be given to the consensus candidate, Haji Haneefa of Kargil. However, at the eleventh hour, Congress gave a ticket to Tsering Namgyal of Leh. Everybody irrespective of party affiliation was annoyed at it in Kargil. We had made clear that nobody from Kargil has gone to the Parliament after 2009”, Akhoon said.
“Thereafter we all came under the society pressure. Islamia School, Imam Khomeini Memorial Trust, Abjuman Sahib Az-Zaman, Ahli Sunnah Wa-al Jamaat, Noor Bakhsh Tanzeem, Congress and National Conference (NC) unanimously chose Haji Haneefa as the consensus candidate. It was in the best interest of Kargil to support the consensus candidate. For us it is Kargil first, NC and Congress second”, Akhoon asserted.
Both Sajad Kargili and Akhoon said that the leaders of all parties, excluding the BJP, are running a well-coordinated campaign for Haji Haneefa. “It is clear that the vote will be divided in Leh. This is clearly our candidate’s victory and BJP’s defeat”, Kargili asserted.

Updated On 5/8/2024 1:00:06 AM


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