Both parties to share power 50:50
Excelsior Correspondent
KARGIL, July 18: National Conference and Congress today struck pre-poll alliance for upcoming elections to Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) Kargil which are scheduled to be held in September and a notification is expected to be issued in first week of August.
An announcement for pre-poll alliance was made by senior leaders of National Conference and Congress including Qamar Ali Akhoon, Feroz Khan and Asgar Ali Karbalaie at a press conference here this afternoon. Number of Councilors of the LAHDC Kargil hailing from NC and Congress were also present.
Insiders said NC and Congress leadership of Kargil was in talks for past some time and held series of rounds of negotiations to work out modalities of pre-poll alliance for 30-member Council in which election will be held for 26 seats while four Councilors are nominated by the UT Ladakh administration.
While seats to be shared by National Conference and Congress will be decided later, both parties have agreed to share power equally in the Council i.e. the Chairman will be rotated for two and half years while the two parties will have two Executive Councilors each (who have rank of the Minister).
In 2018 elections, NC and Congress had contested elections to the Council separately but joined hand post poll to form the City Government due to hung verdict. NC had won 10 and Congress eight seats while PDP had two, BJP one and there were five Independents. However, later both PDP Councilors defected to BJP and with four nominated Councilors also belonging to the party, the BJP’s strength rose to 7.
After an year, NC parted ways with Congress and got majority with the help of Independents.
NC leader Feroz Khan is Chairman of the Council for almost five years now.
The leaders of Congress and National Conference said the decision to have pre-poll alliance was to keep BJP and its like-minded parties, especially RSS, at bay.
“Time has come for secular parties to stand united against BJP and its like-minded parties to safeguard the Constitution and democracy,” working president of Ladakh unit of Congress Asgar Ali Karbalaie told reporters.
He said both the parties will work together in the upcoming elections and “we will not provide an opportunity to BJP to have a platform in Kargil”.
After elections, the parties will have a post-poll alliance with 50:50 seat sharing in the Council, he said, adding no Independent Candidate will be given support.
National Conference provincial president, Ladakh Qamar Ali Akhoon said the two parties have a wide range of discussions before deciding to fight the elections together.
“We have reached an agreement in a series of meetings that we will walk together before and after elections, nobody will fight elections without a mandate and desist from making any remarks against each other,” he said.
Answering questions, Karbalaie said barring a few pockets, BJP has almost no existence in Kargil.
“After August 2019 development (when J&K was bifurcated into two Union Territories and its special status was revoked), we have learnt a lot of lessons and the time demands us to come together to fight for our future,” he said.
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