Before the vote, parties lose Ladakh

In a dramatic turn of events, over the past three days, the local leaders of all the political parties disbanded their units in the area and joined the newly-floated Front. They were joined by ministers, former ministers, MPs and legislators who quit their parties.

These included National Conference8217;s Minister of State for Housing and Ladakh Affairs Koshak Togdan Rinpoche and Minister of State for Agriculture T Namgyal, its sitting Rajya Sabha member Koshik Thicksey and a number of ruling party councillors in the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council. Similarly, the Congress8217;s former Union minister and ex-MP P Namgyal and its sitting MLA, C Dorjay, also resigned. No amount of persuasion could help.

According to sources, NC chief and Union Minister of State for External Affairs Omar Abdullah and State Finance Minister A R Rather had rushed to the region on a salvage mission yesterday but were given a stinging rebuff. No partyman obliged them.

The Ladakh region, with a population of over 2.32 lakh, has four assembly constituencies. Of them, two each fall in Buddhist-dominated Leh and Muslim-dominated Kargil districts. Of these, three seats had gone to the National Conference and one to the Congress in 1996. Both these districts, along with two each in the Valley and the Jammu region, are going to polls during the first phase on September 16.

All the political parties have been stunned into silence. Sources attributed the dramatic developments to widespread resentment among Buddhists over their 8216;8216;continuous neglect8217;8217; by successive state governments. Though former Governor and senior Congress leader Mohammad Shafi Qureshi regretted that his party could not find a candidate, he lamented the neglect of the region.

Qureshi pointed out that of the total 64,000 sq km area of Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh had over 41,000 sq km of territory. Despite having such a vast terrain, rich in mineral reserves, the Ladakhis have always been neglected in the area of development, employment and other spheres of life.

Though the Buddhists launched an agitation and succeeded in getting an autonomous Ladakh Hill Development Council in 1994, the area could not witness much development due to the return of an NC government in the state. The Council was dominated by members owing allegiance to the Congress and nothing much could be achieved.

NC secretary general Sheikh Nazir Ahmed has accused the Congress of being behind the turn of events. 8216;8216;This is not in national interest,8217;8217; he said. He denied the allegation that his party had neglected Ladakh. 8216;8216;Though we had only one MLA from Leh district, we elected another person from there to the state legislative council. Both were made ministers in the NC government. Apart from this, we sent another Buddhist from the district to the Rajya Sabha,8217;8217; he said, pointing out that there was only one minister from Kargil district where the party had won both assembly seats last time.

The BJP has made a virtue of necessity. 8216;8216;Our party is supporting them,8217;8217; said party spokesman Nirmal Singh. 8216;8216;There has been widespread resentment over the neglect of Ladakh and the BJP decided to go by the wishes of the people there.8217;8217;