Chairman election on Oct 18, oath on 17th
*Two parties to take decision tomorrow
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Oct 15: Administration today called first meeting of newly elected Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) Kargil to elect the new Chairman on October 18 while oath ceremony of the new Councillors will be held on October 17.
The Administration is also expected to nominate four Councillors to the LAHDC Kargil shortly.
Officials told the Excelsior that the Deputy Commissioner Kargil, who acts as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to the LAHDC, has convened first meeting of the Council to elect new Chairman-cum-CEC at 3 pm on October 18.
Prior to the election, oath ceremony of all 26 newly elected Councillors will be held at 11 am on October 17.
With the CEO calling first meeting of the Council to elect new Chairman on October 18, National Conference and Congress are likely to hold joint meeting on October 17 after oath ceremony of the Councillors to take call on which party will hold post of the Chairman-cum-CEC for first term of two and half years.
If the first term goes to the National Conference which has won 12 seats as against 10 of the Congress, Feroz Khan, who was Chairman-cum-CEC for full term of five years in the last Council and Dr Mohammad Jaffer Akhoon, a retired Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Kargil are stated to be front runners for the post.
Khan has been re-elected from Silmoo while Dr Akhoon, who happens to be the brother of Qamar Ali Akhoon, former Cabinet Minister in erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir State, was elected from Thasgam Thuina.
“Kargil unit of the National Conference will take a decision anytime now and it will be finalized by party high command including Dr Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah,” the party leaders said.
Several names are under consideration in the Congress for the post of Chairman but Nassir Munshi, district president of the party, is the front-runner, the party insiders said.
Nassir Munshi was elected from Choskore constituency.
The National Conference and Congress had, prior to the elections, agreed for post-poll alliance in the LAHDC Kargil to keep BJP away from the power though the two parties contested elections against each other excepting few seats where they fielded joint candidate.
Though the two parties stand by post-poll alliance to share the post of Chairman-cum-CEC for two and half years each, they will take a call on October 17 as to which party will have its Chairperson for first term. However, they are unanimous to equally share four posts of Executive Councillors, who have ranks of the Minister.
National Conference vice president and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had stated that since his party has more seats than the Congress it should get first term of the Chairperson.
NC had won 12 seats followed by Congress 10, BJP and Independents two each. Election was held for 26 seats.
In the Council of 30 members, four Councillors are to be nominated by the Union Territory Administration of Ladakh. The nominated Councillors have the voting rights. This will take the BJP tally to six.
If the NC and Congress stay united in the Council, they will have no problem in proving the majority as they together accounted for 22 seats in the House of 30.
In the previous Council, NC had initially formed the City Government with the help of Congress. Later, the NC shunned Congress and formed the Government with the support of Independents.
NC had then 10 seats, Congress eight, PDP two, BJP one and Independents 5. However, two PDP Councillors had switched over to the BJP.
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