Kharge, Gandhis, Sukhu among Cong star campaigners
Only 3 candidates left in fray for Ladakh seat
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, May 6: In a major setback to the National Conference in Ladakh, all party functionaries from district Kargil submitted en-masse resignations in protest against the party’s pressure on them to support Congress candidate Tsering Namgayal from Ladakh Parliamentary constituency instead of NC leader Haji Hanifa Jan, who had joined the fray as an Independent candidate with support of Kargil units of NC and Congress.
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With Sajjad Kargili and Kacho Mohammad Feroz opting out of the contest on last day of withdrawal of nomination papers, only three candidates are now left in the race for Ladakh Lok Sabha seat including Tashi Gyalson (BJP), Tsering Namgayal (Congress) and Mohammad Hanifa Jan (Independent). Gyalson and Namgayal are from Buddhist dominated Leh district while Jan belonged to Shia Muslims dominated Kargil district.
Ladakh seat will go to polls in fifth phase on May 20.
NC Additional Secretary Ladakh and former Minister in erstwhile J&K State Government Qamar Ali Akhoon wrote a letter to NC president Dr Farooq Abdullah today conveying the district Kargil unit’s decision to resign en-masse by all party functionaries from primary membership of the National Conference.
The resignations were announced after NC leadership directed its Ladakh unit especially Kargil leadership to support the Congress candidate. As per the seat-sharing agreement between INDIA bloc, NC and Congress shared three Parliamentary seats in J&K and Ladakh. Ladakh seat had gone to the Congress but NC’s Kargil unit revolted against the party decision and fielded its district president Mohammad Hanifa Jan as Independent candidate with the backing of Congress district unit. Several social and religious organizations of Kargil are also backing Jan.
“The NC high command was pressurising us to extend support to Tsering Namgayal, the official Congress candidate from Ladakh, but it was against the decision taken by Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) which has put up Haji Hanifa Jan as its candidate,” Akhoon said in Kargil.
He said they have taken the decision to resign from the basic membership of NC in the larger interest of Ladakh, especially the Kargil district.
“Jan is the united choice of KDA and we thank both the Independents who withdrew in his support. The party high command was putting pressure on us to support Congress party’s official candidate. They were telephoning me and I told them ‘never’. We made the sacrifice in the larger interest of Ladakh, especially Kargil,” Akhoon said.
He said Jan is a unanimous candidate of all political, social and religious groups of Kargil and “we will do whatever is needed for his win”.
Jan had already submitted his resignation from the NC and “we are resigning from the basic membership of the party and disassociating with it”, he said.
In his letter to Dr Farooq Abdullah, Akhoon said Jan is supported by all the political and religious institutions.
“The party high command is pressurising us (both telephonically as well on social media) to support the official candidate of INC (Congress) from Ladakh which is unacceptable to us including J&K NC and INC Unit Kargil,” the letter read.
Akhoon said this letter may be considered as mass resignation of all party functionaries from the primary membership of J&K National Conference.
Meanwhile, the Congress has submitted its 38-member list of start campaigners for Ladakh Lok Sabha seat to the Election Commission of India and Chief Electoral Officer Ladakh.
The star campaigners include Mallikarjun Kharge, president, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, KC Venugopal, Ambika Soni, Sachin Pilot, Ghulam Ahmed Mir, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, Bharatsinh Solanki, Vikar Rasool Wani, Pawan Khera, Kanhaiya Kumar, Raj Babbar, and Nawang Rigzin Jora among others.
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