NC to stake claim to Chairman’s post for Ist term
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 9: The National Conference and Congress leadership will meet in Kargil after three to four days to finalize formation of next City Government together after they jointly won 22 seats out of 26 for which elections were held on October 4 and counting was completed last evening. NC won 12 and Congress 10 seats.
Leaders in the two parties told the Excelsior that initially leaders and elected Councillors of the two parties will meet separately followed by joint meeting which could take at least three to four days as presently the winners have gone to their constituencies to extend gratitude to the electorates.
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Both the parties are reported to have decided to share four posts of Executive Councillors (who enjoy rank of the Ministers and hold charge of different departments) equally between them. However, as far as the post of Chairman-cum-Chief Executive Councillor of Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) Kargil is concerned, the two parties are likely to reach consensus on rotation for two and half year each as the Council has a term of five years.
“The question remains who will have the post of Chairman first,” the insiders said, adding they are confident that the issue will be resolved amicably.
The National Conference is likely to stake claim to the post of Chairman-cum-CEC for first term of two and half years on the ground that it emerged as single largest party winning 12 seats as against 10 of the Congress. Some of the Congress leaders are of the view that National Conference was in power for last five years and the Congress could get first term for the post of Chairman.
However, leaders of both the parties were of the view that issue of the Chairman’s rotation will be resolved amicably in the meeting of senior leaders of the two parties.
The Chairman-cum-CEC has the rank of Cabinet Minister of a State while Executive Councillors have the rank of the Deputy Minister of a State.
In the outgoing Council, National Conference leader Feroz Khan remained Chairman-cum-CEC of the LAHDC Kargil for full term of five years initially with the support of Congress followed by backing of the Independents. Khan has been re-elected from Silmoo constituency with an impressive margin and is once again strong contender for the post of Chairman.
As per the procedure, initially the Council meeting has to be convened by the Deputy Commissioner Kargil, who serves as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to the Council in which all newly elected members have to take oath. This is followed by election of the Chairman-cum-CEC which can take place either unanimously or through voting.
“First meeting of the Council has to take place within 15 days of the notification of results,” the officials said.
Meanwhile, BJP’s UT president for Ladakh Phunchok Stanzin told the Excelsior that their party did well by winning two seats but losing four others with very thin margin.
“We will wait and watch about outcome of National Conference and Congress negotiations,” Stanzin said, adding the BJP will continue to take up issues of the people in the Council especially development of the district.
Though the BJP won two seats, its strength in the Council will go up to six as the Union Territory Administration of Ladakh has to nominate four Councillors in the LAHDC Kargil with voting rights. Besides 12 seats of National Conference, 10 of Congress and two of BJP, there were two Independents who made it to the Council. AAP which contested four seats drew a blank while the PDP didn’t field a single candidate in the elections.
In the outgoing Council, NC had 10 seats, Congress eight, PDP two, BJP one and Independents five. However, two PDP Councillors had joined the BJP later.
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