KARGIL: Officials announced on Sunday that the National Conference and the Congress had won a total of 22 seats in the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council-Kargil poll. The first election after Ladakh was divided into a Union Territory as a result of the repeal of Article 370 of the Constitution was held for the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC)-Kargil. On October 4, elections for 26 council seats were held. Four voting members are proposed by the administration for the 30-member council. The National Conference (NC), which is now the single-largest party, got 12 seats, according to the officials, while its ally Congress won 10 seats. According to them, the BJP won two seats and two Independent candidates also won.74,026 of the 95,388 eligible voters cast ballots in the election, yielding a 77.61 percent turnout. On October 1, the current council, led by NC representative Feroz Ahmad Khan, finished its five-year term. Before October 11, the new council will be in place. Despite announcing a pre-election cooperation, the NC and Congress only fielded 17 and 22 candidates, respectively. Both parties claimed that the agreement was only applicable to regions where the BJP was a formidable opponent. The BJP ran 17 candidates this time around, up from the previous election when it won one seat and eventually added two PDP councillors to bring its total to three.Along with 25 Independents, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) tried its luck for four seats. In the district’s 278 polling places where the council elections were held, electronic voting machines were employed for the first time.
