The Congress on Thursday saw itself torn between Muslim-majority Kargil district and Buddhist-majority Leh district of the Ladakh Lok Sabha constituency, with each district pitching for its own candidate ahead of the polls. The party high command, however, has not formally announced any name for the seat.
The Congress unit of Leh has put forth the name of Tshering Namgyal as the party candidate. This came just a day after the Kargil unit of Congress backed Haji Hanifa Jan as “a consensus candidate”. Mr. Jan is a district president of the National Conference (NC).
In Leh, senior Congress leader Nawang Rigzin Jora termed the Congress unit’s move in Kargil as “a decision made locally”. “It’s not supported by Leh,” Mr. Jora said.
Senior Congress leader Nasir Munshi, who is in Delhi, has suggested that Mr. Jan is “a joint candidate” of the INDIA bloc.
Sources said the party high command has not yet formally announced the name of its candidate for the Ladakh seat and “is likely to put forth a candidate in the next 24 hours”.
Ladakh was carved out as a Union Territory in 2019 from the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir. The constituency, with 1,82,571 voters, will witness its first ever Lok Sabha polls as a Union Territory this time.
