Ladakh LS trend: BJP set to lose seat to Independent candidate Hanifa Jan

As anticipated amid a protracted agitation over the Sixth Schedule and statehood demand, Independent candidate and Shia leader from Kargil, Mohammad Hanifa Jan, is set to win the lone Lok Sabha constituency of Ladakh.

The BJP had won the seat twice in the 2014 and 2019 general elections.

Ladakh chief electoral officer Yatin Maralkar said, “Independent candidate Mohammad Hanifa Jan is leading with a big margin over his rivals. Only one round of counting, including postal ballots, is left but he is almost certain to win.”

Hanifa Jan was leading with 64,157 votes followed by Tsering Namgyal of the Congress with 35,541 votes and BJP’s Tashi Gyalson with 30,643 votes.

National Conference vice-president and former chief minister Omar Abdullah has already extended greetings to Hanifa Jan. “To @HajiHanifa I’m really very happy for you today. A few months ago, you tasted defeat in the hill council elections & now you will represent Ladakh, especially the marginalised people of Kargil in the Lok Sabha. Your victory cost @JKNC_ its Kargil unit but it was well worth the price.”

Though Ladakh witnessed a triangular contest in the first election since the abrogation of Article 370 and being granted Union Territory status, the prospects of Hanifa Jan, who comes from the Shia Muslim community, always looked brighter as compared to the Congress and BJP candidates Tsering Namgyal and Tashi Gyalson, respectively, both from the Buddhist community.

Leh district has Buddhists in majority and Kargil is dominated by the Shia Muslims. The constituency with 1.84 lakh voters went to the polls on May 20.

To support Hanifa Jan as the consensus candidate from Kargil, the National Conference unit had resigned en-masse.

People in Ladakh are miffed with the BJP over its U-turn on granting constitutional safeguards to the region under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution and statehood. To soothe frayed nerves, the BJP dropped sitting MP Tsering Namgyal and gave the mandate to Leh hill council chairman Tashi Gyalson.

There has been an increasing demand, across religious lines, for statehood and constitutional guarantees under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution for Ladakh to protect its unique ethnicities, culture, language, environment.