Srinagar: In a major victory for the National Conference led by Farooq Abdullah, the Supreme Court has allowed the party to use its ‘plough’ symbol in the upcoming Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council-Kargil (LAHDC-K) polls.
The apex court on Wednesday, September 6, also junked the process set rolling by the Ladakh administration, which is run directly by New Delhi, for conducting the LAHDC-K elections on September 10.
“The court has imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on the Ladakh administration and also ordered it to issue a fresh notification for the polls within seven days,” advocate Shariq Riyaz, who appeared for the National Conference (NC) at the apex court, told The Wire.
Sajjad Hussain, a political analyst based in Kargil, termed the apex court’s ruling as a “big embarrassment” for the Ladakh administration headed by Lieutenant Governor B.D. Mishra.
“The decision had raised questions about the administration’s partiality, especially because the NC was leading the LAHDC-K in last elections and denying it its symbol was a perversion of justice,” Hussain told The Wire, dubbing the administration’s move as an “attempt to keep Kashmir-based parties out of any electoral contest in Ladakh.”
Earlier, the Ladakh administration had refused to grant the ‘plough’ symbol to the NC, arguing that the Election Department of Ladakh, the nodal body set up for conducting LAHDC polls, had no such powers as it was not an Election Commission.
The decision had prompted the NC to knock the door of the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh (J&K) high court with the argument that the Election Department had granted the Aam Aadmi Party its ‘broom’ symbol for the LAHDC-Leh polls in 2020.
Deputy Solicitor General of India T.M. Shamsi argued before J&K high court that the NC was not a recognised ‘State Political Party’ in Ladakh. “The reservation of the plough symbol in the party’s favour was only with respect to Jammu and Kashmir,” Shamsi argued.
The Hindu reported that Rules 17 and 18 of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (Election) Rules, 1995, stipulate that symbols are reserved only for political parties recognised by the Election Commission as a national and a state party.
In its verdict on August 10, the high court allowed the NC candidates in Ladakh to use the ‘plough’ symbol for the upcoming polls in which Electronic Voting Machines or EVMs will be used for the first time.
Challenging the HC ruling, the Ladakh administration filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the apex court which, however, refused to stay the J&K HC order.
On Wednesday, the top court came down heavily on the LG’s administration in Ladakh over the non-compliance of the HC order.
In an earlier hearing, the top court had granted liberty to the NC to pursue contempt proceedings against the LG administration in the high court over non-compliance of its order.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that the contempt proceedings before the high court should be “disposed of in accordance with law considering the present judgment.”
According to Bar and Bench, the apex court, while hearing the Ladakh administration, quashed the LAHDC-K election process while allotting ‘plough’ symbol “exclusively” to the NC. “Appeal stands dismissed,” a SC bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Ahsanuddin Amanullah said.
An official notification by the Ladakh administration on August 5 had asked the candidates for LAHDC-K polls to file their nominations by August 16 while August 26 was set as the date for withdrawing nominations.
According to officials, 89 candidates are in the poll fray so far with 17 each from National Conference and Bharatiya Janta Party, nine from Congress and four from Aam Aadmi Party while 42 are independent candidates.
Talks for a seat-sharing formula between National Conference and Congress didn’t yield any breakthrough.
The Peoples Democratic Party led by Mehbooba Mufti, which has suffered mass desertions in Ladakh following the reading down of Article 370, has opted out of the contest.
The LAHDC polls will be the first major electoral exercise in Muslim-majority Kargil division of Ladakh which was separated from Jammu and Kashmir, and downgraded into a union territory without legislature by the BJP-led Union government on August 5, 2019.
Each of the two hill councils in Ladakh – LADHC-Leh and LAHDC-Kargil, which are autonomous bodies with powers to collect taxes and formulate development plans, have 30 members.
While 26 councillors are elected through polls, four are nominated from the minorities and women.
The polls for LAHDC-Leh were held in 2020 with the BJP winning 15 out of 26 seats.
The apex body of Leh, comprising prominent political and trade leaders, had initially boycotted the polls to seek inclusion of the strategic region bordering China in the Sixth Schedule.
The boycott had prompted the Union home minister Amit Shah to intervene.
The Union government had later formed a committee to look into the demands of the apex body, which has since joined hands with their counterparts in Kargil to demand special concessions for Ladakh.
However, several rounds of negotiations between the two sides have failed to produce any concrete result with the Union government refusing to give in to their demands.
Analysts believe that the LAHDC-K polls will determine the acceptability of the August 5, 2019 decision in Muslim-majority Kargil. Hussain, the analyst quoted above, said that the poll will be a “litmus test” of the BJP’s policy on J&K.
“BJP has been claiming that the people in Ladakh including Kargil district are very much happy with Article 370 decision. This election will test the BJP’s theory,” he said.