Srinagar- Hours after National Conference president Dr Farooq Abdullah warned his party colleagues in Kargil to support the INDIA bloc candidate – T Namgyal in the upcoming Lok Sabha election for the Ladakh seat, the entire Kargil unit of National Conference on Monday announced en mass resignation over the choice of candidate.
While addressing a press conference in Kargil, Additional General Secretary ,NC Kargil Unit, Qamar Ali Akhoon stated that the party high command was pressuring them to extend support to the official Congress candidate from Ladakh, which was deemed unacceptable by the Kargil leadership.
He said in response to that, the NC unit in Kargil had submitted a mass resignation letter to the party.
On Monday, the NC President warned his colleagues that “failure to follow this directive will be seen as a serious breach of party discipline”.
The letter that was sent to the NC president states that the party’s Kargil unit has taken this decision “in the interest of the Ladakh.”
“The Ladakh Democratic Alliance has unitedly decided to project a Joint Candidate namely Mohammad Haneefa Jan as Independent Candidate for the forthcoming Lok Sabha Election from 1- Ladakh Parliamentary Constituency supported by all the Political and Religious Institutions unanimously coming across the party/religious affiliations,” reads the letter.
It further says “The party high command is pressurizing us (both telephonically as well on social media) to support the official candidate of INC from Ladakh which is unacceptable to us including J&K NC and INC Unit Kargil,” adding, “In this connection, as the party insists us to act against interest of the people of Ladakh, so we are compelled to resign in masses from all party functionaries including the undersigned from the party post.
Earlier, local Congress and National Conference leaders put forward the name of Haji Hanifa Jan, the district president of NC, as the candidate for the Ladakh Parliament seat under the INDIA bloc. However, this proposal contradicted the decision of the Congress High Command, which nominated T Namgayal, the opposition leader in the Leh Hill Development Council (LADHC), as the party’s official nominee.
The cold desert will go to polls in the fifth phase of elections on May 20. Two candidates Tashi Gyalson of BJP and Congress’ Tsering Namgyal are from Leh, while Haji Haneefa Jan who filed the nomination independently is from muslim-majority Kargil.
Notably, Sajjad Hussain Kargili, a social activist from Kargil on Sunday announced that he will not contest the upcoming Parliament elections and support the joint candidate Haji Hanifa Jan from Kargil.
Pertinent to mention, people of Ladakh have been demanding for two separate seats in Parliament for Leh and Kargil and this is part of the four-point agenda put forth by representatives from the region to the High Powered Committee constituted by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
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