SRINAGAR: The Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) Kargil is set to hold elections in the first week of September, with a notification for voting likely to be issued by the Election Authority in the first week of August. The new Council must be in place before October 1.
Official sources said a fresh delimitation is unlikely and all 26 seats for which elections are to be held in the Kargil district will have the same jurisdiction as in 2018. The council has 30 seats but four are being nominated by the government.
Currently, the National Conference is the single largest party with 10 seats, followed by the Congress with eight, the BJP with seven, and Independents with five. In the 2018 elections, the BJP won only one seat but later gained the support of two Councillors from the PDP who switched to the BJP. Additionally, all four nominated Councillors are affiliated with the BJP, increasing their strength to seven.
Feroz Ahmed Khan, a leader of the National Conference, has remained Chairman-cum-Chief Executive Councillor (CEC) of the LAHDC Kargil throughout its five-year term. Initially, he had the support of Congress and later relied on Independents and one BJP Councilor to maintain his position.
This upcoming election will be the sixth for the LAHDC Kargil. While the LAHDC Leh was established in 1995, the LAHDC Kargil was constituted in 2003. Both Councils have a five-year term
