The Union Territory (UT) of Ladakh on September 8 re-notified the dates for the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council-Kargil (LAHDC-K) elections for October 4, two days after the Supreme Court allowed the National Conference (NC) to retain its party symbol, ‘Plough’.
Referring to the SC order issued on September 6, 2023, the Ladakh administration, in a fresh order, said, “The symbol “Plough” is hereby reserved for the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference Party for the ensuing elections to the 5th LAHDC-K.”
The fresh date for the polling has been set as October 4, 2023. Earlier, the elections were scheduled for September 10, 2023. However, the move of the UT administration of Ladakh to deny the NC its party symbol to be used for the polls led to a prolonged legal battle between the two since the first week of August.
The UT administration argued that Ladakh has an election authority and not a State Election Commission, which has the rights to issue symbols for the elections. However, the NC pleaded before the court that the same authority issued a symbol to the Aam Aadmi Party for the 2020 LAHDC-Leh elections.
Ladakh was carved out as a UT in 2019 from J&K. Unlike the UT of J&K, Ladakh does not have an Assembly but the Centre allowed it to retain two hill councils for Kargil and Leh districts to address the governance issues at the local level.
The Ladakh administration could not justify its position on the NC symbol before the top court. Apparently, the move was aimed to disallow the regional mainstream to make a comeback in Kargil, which has a huge symbolic value for the NC in the backdrop of the Centre’s steps made following the 2019 decision to end J&K’s special constitutional position.
“We are unable to appreciate such conduct. This recalcitrance to decide in time speaks volumes. Instances like these raise serious questions,” Justices Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Vikram Nath observed, in a 51-page judgement, on September 6, 2023.
The bench allowed the NC to retain the party symbol, granted by the Election Commission of India (ECI) for the erstwhile undivided J&K, for the elections. It underlined that NC’s request for the ‘plough’ symbol was “bonafide and legitimate”.
“It is surprising that the UT of Ladakh not only denied R1 (National Conference) the ‘Plough’ symbol, but even upon timely intervention by the learned Single Judge, has left no stone unturned not only to resist but also frustrate a cause simply by efflux of time,” the bench observed.
The NC has asked its leaders to prepare filing nominations for the polls. “It’s unfortunate that we had to wage such a battle for what was our right as a political party. The guidelines are clear about the allocation of symbols. Clearly, the administration in Ladakh had a biased agenda, which is why they went all the way to SC to deny us our right. If you read the verdict, it has been absolutely scathing about the conduct of the Ladakh administration,” NC vice president Omar Abdullah said.
Mr. Abdullah said the fact that the SC saw fit to impose a sum of one lakh rupees of cost on the Ladakh administration is in itself an indication of how seriously the court viewed the conduct of the Ladakh government. “Our candidates will file nomination and look forward to receive the support of people of Kargil,” Mr. Abdullah said.
The NC and Congress have already decided to fight these polls together. The polls will see 26 members elected to the council.
