Council session likely to be called on Sept 14
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 11: The National Conference was all set to form local Government in Kargil minus Congress, PDP and BJP as it has secured support of four Independents and today it formally submitted list of 14 Councilors in 26-member Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Kargil to the Deputy Commissioner and sought convening of the Council session to prove majority.
National Conference leaders including Qamar Ali Akhoon, former Minister, Haji Hanifa Jan, district president and former CEC LAHDC Kargil and Feroz Khan, newly elected Councilor from Silmo, who is NC’s candidate for the CEC, met Deputy Commissioner, Kargil, Vikas Kundal this morning and submitted him signed list of 14 Councilors to stake claim to form the local Government.
After getting the list, Kundal has written to Ladakh Affairs Department of the State Government to fix date for convening the session of fourth LAHDC Kargil for election of the Chairman-cum-CEC.
“Most likely, the Government could call the LAHDC Kargil session on September 14 for election of the CEC,” sources said, adding that no other political party has staked claim for post of the CEC so far but the election has to be held during the Council session.
Since the State Government hasn’t nominated four Councilors to the LAHDC Kargil so far, the majority mark stood at 14 out of 26, which the NC has obtained. However, once four nominations are made, the majority mark will go up to 16 as the nominated members enjoyed the voting rights.
Apart from its 10 Councilors, the National Conference has submitted list of four out of total of five Independent Councilors to the Deputy Commissioner. They included Ghulam Haider (Lankarchey constituency), Syed Mujtaba (Trespone), Syed Mehdi (Gund Mangalpur) and Agha Syeed Hassan (Saliskut).
Election for 26 Councilors was held on August 27 and results were declared on August 31 in which National Conference had emerged as single largest party winning 10 seats followed by Congress eight, PDP 2, BJP one and Independents 5. The Congress, though being the second largest party and only two seats short of the National Conference, hasn’t shown any interest in forming the local Government in Kargil.
Senior Congress leaders were of the view that it wasn’t possible for them to reach the magic mark of 16 in the LAHDC Kargil, which has total strength of 30.
“Going by the support of four Independent Councilors, the National Conference would easily attain the majority mark of 14 presently as the House strength was confined to 26. However, the political observers were keeping the fingers crossed as to how the National Conference would reach the figure of 16 once the Government nominates four Councilors to the LAHDC Kargil as they too enjoy the voting rights.
The BJP, which has opened its account in the LAHDC Kargil for the first time by winning one seat, was confident that its tally would go up to five once four Councilors are nominated by the Government and in that scenario, the NC would have to bank upon the support of Congress, BJP or PDP to bail it out at the time of majority vote.
Fifth Independent Councilor, Kacho Ahmad Khan, who is the outgoing Chairman-cum-CEC of the LAHDC Kargil, has decided not to support the National Conference.
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