Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, May 6: As sensitive and hilly Ladakh Lok Sabha Parliamentary seat surrounded by two hostile neighbours—Pakistan and China—goes to polls tomorrow in final phase of polling in Jammu and Kashmir, authorities have sounded Army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) to be prepared for any eventuality in 42 polling stations falling along the Line of Control (LoC) and Line of Actual Control (LAC) with Pakistan and China respectively.
Ladakh district has 33 polling stations located close to LoC with Pakistan including 24 in Kargil district and nine in Leh while nine polling stations of Leh were located close to LAC with China, mostly in Nobra Assembly segment of Leh district.
Authorities have declared 89 polling stations in Ladakh Lok Sabha sear as hyper sensitive including 67 in two Assembly segments of Kargil district and 22 in equal number of Assembly constituencies in Leh district.
SSP Kargil Sujit Kumar told the Excelsior that an Emergency Plan has been worked out for all 24 polling stations in Kargil district falling along the LoC with Pakistan. He said Army has been involved in the Emergency Plan and if there was any firing from Pakistan side, the troops would retaliate and, in the meantime, the polling stations would be shifted to safer locations.
Kumar said out of 24 polling stations falling along LoC, 12 were located in Drass, eight in Batalik and four in Kargil town.
Official sources said all these polling stations have been declared as hyper sensitive and alternate sites in safer areas have been identified for smooth polling if Pakistan Army resorted to any misadventure on the LoC. They added that Army has been involved in working out an Emergency Plan for the polling stations falling along the LoC as their support would be crucial.
In Leh district, nine polling stations each fall along LAC with China and LoC with Pakistan, which too have been rated as hyper sensitive. While the polling stations falling on LoC with Pak were located in Leh Assembly segment, the polling stations along LAC with China fall in Nobra Assembly segment.
While Army was deployed along LoC, para-military ITBP mans the LAC with China. Authorities have alerted Army and ITBP to meet with any eventuality during the polling tomorrow in the polling stations falling along the LoC and LAC.
Sources said LoC with Pakistan was calm for the past quite sometime while LAC with China quite often witnessed incursions by the Chinese People Liberation Army (PLA). They added that all possible security arrangements have been made for polling in the polling stations falling along LoC and LAC and meet with any eventuality from across during the voting.
Kargil had witnessed a full fledged war between India and Pakistan Armies after Pakistani Army troops had infiltrated into Kargil heights in 1999. The war lasted between May and July and ended with the Indian victory.
Ladakh Lok Sabha seat has 531 polling stations including 89 hyper sensitive, 145 sensitive and 297 as normal.
Leh Assembly segments has highest number of 211 polling stations, 16 of which were hyper sensitive, 53 sensitive and 142 normal while Kargil segments has 173 polling stations including 53 hyper sensitive, 57 sensitive and 63 normal.
Zanskar Assembly constituency in Kargil district has 84 polling stations, 14 of which were hyper sensitive, 27 sensitive and 43 normal while Nobra segment of Leh district has lowest number of 63 polling stations, six of which were hyper sensitive, eight sensitive and 49 normal.
Ladakh Lok Sabha seat was based on 1,60,361 electorates including 6076 new voters and 5119 Service electorates. Leh district has 79042 votes while Kargil has 81319 electorates.
Leh Assembly segment has highest number of 66,235 electorates followed by Kargil with 60,415, Zanskar with 20904 and Nobra (12807).
Of 6076 new voters, there were 3569 females and 2507 male while among Service electorates of 5119, there were 4346 male and 773 females.
In Kargil, polling staff and para-military personnel were airlifted to 10 polling stations while in Leh, a similar exercise was carried out for six polling stations.
Out of just four candidates in the fray for Ladakh seat, the lowest for any constituency in Jammu and Kashmir, there were two each from the twin districts.
BJP has fielded 2004 MP from Ladakh—Thupstan Chhewang and Congress its district president Tsering Samphel (both from Ladakh). In Kargil district, two Independent candidates have joined the fray. They included Sayeed Mohammad Kazim Sabri, backed by powerful religious organisation Islamiya School Kargil (ISK) and Ghulam Raza, a Congress leader, who had revolted against the party decision to field candidate from Leh and joined the fray backed by another powerful organisation—Imam Khomeini Memorial Trust (IMKT).
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