After ‘fight’, Farooq Abdullah said, NC will hand over the reins of Kargil Council to Congress. india news
Srinagar: National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah on Tuesday said his party will hand over the chairmanship of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council-Kargil (LAHDC-K) to the Congress by 2023 as agreed among allies, in a bid to defuse the crisis arising from the current chief’s refusal to step down.“We are handing over it (chairmanship of the council) to the Congress,” Farooq told TOI.Tension deepened in the last two weeks when the Congress accused the current CEO of LAHDC-K and NC’s Mohammad Jafar Akhoon of refusing to step down even after completing the two-and-a-half-year tenure agreed among allies after the 2023 elections to the council. Akhoon cited the administrative fallout from the recent creation of five new districts in the Union Territory as the reason for not stepping down.In the October 2023 elections, NC had emerged as the largest party with 12 seats in the 30-member council. Congress had won 10 seats. The allies had a total of 22 seats, six more than the majority. BJP got two seats.Amid the tension, Congress’ Ladakh chief Asghar Ali Karbalai had rejected reports of discord and insisted there was no difference of opinion among the allies over the council. He said the rotational arrangement of chiefs would be in line with the 2023 agreement and the change would be formalized soon. NC-backed Ladakh MP Mohammad Haneefa had also intervened in the tussle and insisted that the council was stable and internal issues were being resolved.The 2023 elections were politically significant as they took place after the removal of Article 370 in August 2019 and the creation of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir as two union territories (UTs). NC Vice President and Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had expressed gratitude for the Congress’s “unwavering support” and thanked the people of Kargil for supporting the alliance.Ladakh UT has two hill councils – LAHDC-K and Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council-Leh (LAHDC-L). Leh council was established in 1995 and that for Kargil in 2003.The Center had approved five new Ladakh districts in August 2024. Lieutenant Governor Vinay Kumar Saxena notified them on April 26 this year, taking the total number to seven. The new districts are Sham, Nubra, Changthang in Leh and Zanskar and Dras in Kargil. It is not clear whether these will come under the Kargil and Leh councils or will be separate bodies.