Gurmath Lotos
Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) Kargil election is supposed to be held on 10September 2023. TheMP Jamyang Tsering Namgyal’s 3-day tour to Zanskar Valley in Julywas significant in the backdrop of the upcoming Hill Council election andnext year’s Lok Sabha election. He laid the foundation stone at numerous places for the link roads and promised to complete them in the next year. Since the announcement of the election date, all political partiesbusy campaigning to woo voters.
This time hill councilof Kargil is different from what traditionally happens in the Kargil district. The reason is that it is the first election after the separation from the erstwhile state of Jammu &and Kashmir. The political atmosphere is differentthis time, we can sense the way political parties come together and announce the pre-poll alliance of Congress and National Conferenceto defeat the Bharat Janta Party.
The impact ofthe National Conference(NC) and People Democratic Party(PDP) will reduce significantly due to not being in power in J&K since the abrogation of Article 370. Now the fight is bipolar that is BJP v/s others.
It was a jolt to Congress that the former executive councilor from the Padam constituency Skalzang Gara and his supporters joined the BJP due to Congress’s internal politics in Kargil. Gara was given the mandate from the Padam constituency and people are expecting that the BJP will give a ticket to Passing Lhawang, who is a present president ofthe Zanskar Buddhist Association, or a female candidate but that has not happened.
Kargil Hill Council was formed in 2003, in the same line with Leh Hill Council Act 1995. In 1995 both districts had offered the institution but Kargil leadership rejected the offer, ‘claiming that the council was founded on the deliberate exclusion and disenfranchisement of Ladakhi Muslims’ even though it was argued that fear of Buddhists would dominate the Muslims. The idea of autonomy was vehemently opposed by the National Conference party the offer was rejected. The purpose of the hill council is to decentralize the power, development, and governance, empower the region, and protect its distinct identity.
As said earlier Kargil adopted the hill council which was created by the Mufti Mohammad Sayeed government of Jammu and Kashmir to balance the regional disparity and another significant formation of the Kargil hill council was to respond to the ‘RRS-VHP proposal of trifurcation’ of Jammu and Kashmir state on a communal and regional basis which would disturb the ‘secular’ and ‘plural’ character of the state.
The hill council has 30 councilors, 26 councilors are directly elected by locals based on adult suffrage, and four seats are reserved for women and minorities. There is no single woman councilor in the council except the nominated one. Women were never given a chance to contest the election.
BJP will try to convince people on the ground of development, that they can’t do divisive politics over religion.The reason is that the majority population belongs to Muslims which will disadvantage for the BJP. Other parties will play religious cards to win the election, especially NC. Since the inception of the hill council, Congress, NC, and PDP have ruled alternatively. BJP never wins the election in Hill Council Election except for one or two seats thus it would litmus test for MP Jamyang Tsering Namgyal beforethe Lok Sabha election to prove that he is acable leader in the region.
The people of Kargil will cast their intelligence because this time two significant regional parties NC and PDP are not in power, thus it’s a great chance forthe two national partiesto win the election. The Congress also tries to win more seats this time.
Zanskar has Three seats out of that BJP able to win one seat last election. This time tries to win all seats but it will be an uphill task to defeat current EC Tashi who is from the NC party. However, it’s interesting to see what ground all parties fight in the election.
The women’s representation in Kargil Hill Council has been zero since the Hill Council’s formation which is surprising and dismaying. Why women were not given tickets to prove that they too cable as men? In this5th election of Kargil Hill Council, there is one AAP women candidate no other political parties have given the mandate to women candidates. KargilHill council never hadelected womancounciloreven half of the voters are women in the district, they too deserve to represent themselves in the hill council.
Zanskar has three constituencies, andthe other two seats were won by NC and Congresseach. This time BJP should have given one ticket to women out of three seats of Zanskar, especially from the central Zanskar that is Padum Constituency. A Sapanch from UftiPibiting, Lobzang Dolma is educated and well acquainted with local issues especially women’s issues in the Zanskar. She was a strong contender for a councilor. Zanskar never had a woman councilor.
All parties failed to give a ticket to women, they too deserve to be councilors and CEC of the Hill Council as well. The men of political parties in the district never speak for women, Women must speak for themselves, otherwise, becoming councilors remains a distant dream.
(A researcher with an interest in issues related to society, politics, and identity).