Ladakh strains Cong-NC ties

“Farooq Abdullah tells us he has pain in the leg. He has been attending other functions though. Omar says he has been requested by the party to campaign in Uttar Pradesh. Even the Central leadership of the Congress has been in touch with the NC leadership to get them to campaign in Ladakh,but they have been adamant so far,” a senior Congress leader told The Indian Express.

Senior Congress leader from Uttar Pradesh Pramod Tiwari confirmed that Omar would be coming to the state,but no details have been finalised yet. “Yes,he is coming. We will plan out his schedule shortly,” said Tiwari.

Congress leaders in Kashmir are not convinced though. They had kept a helicopter ready in Srinagar to take NC leaders to Ladakh. But nobody turned up for the first three days despite “persistent requests” to NC leadership by the Congress.

“Today they said they would send a minister. He first postponed his visit in the morning and so the pilot left. Then the minister suddenly decided to come. We had to call the pilot back. The minister went to Kargil,talked to some people there and left within an hour. The NC is apparently trying to scuttle the Congress’s chances,” a senior Congress leader told The Indian Express on phone from Ladakh.

While the NC has strong presence in minority-dominated Kargil,Buddhist-dominated Leh is the Congress’s stronghold. The NC had won both Assembly seats in Kargil region — Kargil and Zanskar — in the last election,while the Congress had won one out of two in Leh.

After the NC had to give up its claim on Ladakh seat,the Congress had proposed to field a candidate from Kargil,Ghulam Raza. As there was no consensus with the NC over his name,the Congress sought to mollify the NC by replacing Raza with P Namgayal who hails from Leh. But the NC is apparently in no mood to relent.