The INDIA combine on Sunday scored a resounding victory in the first civic elections in Kargil after the 2019 scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, bringing thousands of people in the district onto the streets in celebration.
Out of the 26 seats, alliance partners National Conference and Congress bagged 22 while the BJP won just two seats. Two seats went to Independents.
It was the first poll in Kargil after the 2019 dilution of Article 370. The Kargil election was perceived to be a referendum on the BJP-led government’s August 5, 2019, decisions which saw the bifurcation of the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories and the cancellation of its special status.
“The results will send a positive message to the people who are fighting to defeat the BJP in the country. These results show how angry people here are at the policies of the BJP-led central government, particularly what they have done in 2019 and thereafter,” Qamar AliAkhoon, NC’s seniormost leader in Kargil, told The Telegraph.
The elections were the first test of popularity for the BJP in Kargil, more specifically the success of its outreach among the majority Shia population, as the party has been claiming that its policies enjoy widespread support not just in Ladakh, of which Kargil is a part, but Jammu and Kashmir as well.
The NC and the Congress had announced a pre-poll alliance — though on a limited number of seats where they expected a direct contest with the BJP. The two fought against each other in constituencies where the BJP appeared to be out of the race.
The BJP had won one seat in the last election but its numbers had risen to three after two Peoples Democratic Party councillors joined it.
The NC won 12 seats and the Congress 10 this time. In the outgoing council, the NC had 10 seats and the Congress eight.
Muslims, mostly Shias, are in majority in Kargil. Unlike the Buddhists in Leh, Kargil Muslims had opposed the 2019 changes. Although Muslims still favour restoration of Article 370 provisions, the two communities have joined hands to fight for statehood and special status for Ladakh.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had visited Kargil in August and a large number of people had flocked to his rallies.
During a speech in Kargil recently, NC leader and former chief minister Omar Abdullah had asked the residents to send a “clear message” through their votes on whether they “accept or reject” the 2019 decisions.
The BJP is facing resentment from both Muslims and Buddhists in Ladakh for the failure to grant the region statehood and special status, but the party tried hard to woo Kargil’s Shias on the so-called plank of development.
Ladakh’s Buddhist MP Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, who is from the BJP and had campaigned extensively during the elections, had lavished praise on Prophet Mohammad’s grandson Imam Hussain, calling himself an admirer of Hussain and casting the NC and the Congress as parties of Yazid, who killed him in the battle of Karbala.
“All Muslims, whether Shias or Sunnis, have regard for Imam Hussain Alayhi s-salam (peace be on him), his martyrdom. Even today we mourn his martyrdom. I am a Buddhist but I truly accept him, with full heart,” Namgyal had said in the Drass area of Kargil last month.
That contrasted with the expulsion by his party of its Ladakh Muslim face, Sheikh Nazir Ahmad, in August after his son eloped with a Buddhist girl.
In the run-up to elections, the Ladakh administration, run directly by the Centre, had tried hard to prevent the Kashmir-based NC, also a major political player in Kargil, from retaining its political imprint there.
