NC will hand over Kargil council reins to Congress, Farooq Abdullah says after ‘feud’

SRINAGAR: National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah said Tuesday his party would hand over chairmanship of Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council-Kargil (LAHDC-K) to Congress in line with a 2023 understanding between the allies, moving to defuse a crisis sparked by the current chief’s refusal to step aside.

“We are handing it (chairmanship of the council) over to Congress,” Farooq told TOI.

Strains deepened over the past two weeks after Congress accused NC’s Mohd Jaffer Akhoon, LAHDC-K’s current CEO, of refusing to quit even after completing the term of two-and-a-half years agreed between the allies after 2023 polls to the council. Akhoon had cited administrative fallouts from creation of five new districts in the Union territory recently as the reason not to step down.

NC had emerged as the single largest party in the Oct 2023 elections with 12 seats in the 30-member council. Congress had won 10. The allies together commanded 22 seats, six more than the majority. BJP bagged two seats.

Amid the tensions, Asgar Ali Karbalai, Congress’s Ladakh chief, had shrugged off reports of discord, insisting there were no differences between the allies over the council. He said the chief’s rotational arrangement would hold in line with the 2023 pact and the change would be formalised soon. Mohmad Haneefa, the NC-supported Ladakh MP, had also intervened in the tussle, stressing the council was stable and internal issues were being resolved.

The 2023 polls were politically significant as they were held after removal of Article 370 in Aug 2019 and formation of Ladakh and J&K as two Union territories (UT). NC vice-president and J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah had expressed gratitude to Congress for its “unwavering support” and thanked the people of Kargil for backing the alliance.

Ladakh UT has two hill councils -- LAHDC-K and Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council-Leh (LAHDC-L). The Leh council was established in 1995 and the one for Kargil in 2003.

The Centre had approved five new Ladakh districts in Aug 2024. Lieutenant-governor Vinai Kumar Saxena notified them on April 26 this year, taking the total to seven. The new districts are Sham, Nubra, Changthang in Leh, and Zanskar and Drass in Kargil. It is not clear if these will come under the Kargil and Leh councils or whether they will have separate bodies.