Srinagar: The political uncertainty in Ladakh continues to deepen with the bureaucracy taking control of the volatile Leh region after the dissolution of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council-Leh (LAHDC-L) last month. 

The Leh Apex Body (LAB), which is spearheading the agitation in Ladakh for constitutional safeguards and democratic rights along with Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) in Ladakh, has criticised the decision of the local administration to defer the LAHDC-L election indefinitely.

Speaking with The Wire, co-chairman of the LAB Chering Dorjay Lakrook demanded that the administration should come out with a schedule for the election without further delay.

“The LAHDC was the only avenue and the last vestige of democracy in Ladakh where people could go with their grievances. Now there is no name or sign of democracy here,” he said, while demanding immediate election. 

The KDA leader Sajjad Hussain also demanded that the administration should hold Leh council elections at the earliest. 

An order by the law and justice department of the Union Territory of Ladakh on November 1 delegated the powers of the council to the deputy commissioner Leh Romil Singh Donk, leaving the district without any elected representative, barring its lone Lok Sabha parliamentarian Haneefa Jan. 

While the LAHDC-L term ended on October 31, the term of the twin hill council in Kargil district which was constituted in 2023 is scheduled to end in 2028.

The semi-autonomous councils address the day to day grievances related to governance and civic issues in one of the world’s sparsely populated regions recently marred by political tensions.

Per the existing timetable, the Leh administration had to notify the schedule for the hill council election in September and wind up the process by November 1.

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However, citing “representational anomalies and administrative inconsistencies,” the order by the law department said that the election has been delayed due to the ongoing issues of reserving one-third seats in the council for women and the creation of five new districts in Ladakh. 

The creation of five new districts and the new reservation policy for the twin hill councils were among a series of announcements made last year by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led (BJP-led) Union government in response to the four demands of LAB-KDA combine. 

However, no new administrative units have been set up on the ground in Ladakh since Union home minister Amit Shah made the announcement more than a year ago. 

Shah had announced that five new districts of Drass, Zanskar, Nubra, Changthang and Sham were going to be created in Ladakh on August 26 last year. 

Lakrook alleged that the decision to delay the election was aimed to help the BJP and the creation of the new districts and other issues raised by the law department in its order were “mere excuses”. 

“Otherwise what is the purpose of denying the people of Leh their democratic rights to elect their representatives,” Lakrook, who is also the president of Leh Buddhist Association, said. 

The saffron party was propelled to power in the LAHDC-L polls in 2020 when its 15 councillors out of 26 won in the 30-member council elections. The remaining four councillors are nominated by Ladakh’s lieutenant governor.

However, the BJP has been widely blamed by civil society leaders and prominent citizens in Ladakh for the September 24 violence in which four civilian protesters were killed in firing by security forces while dozens, mostly minors, suffered injuries. 

The party has struggled to retain its political ground in the region with many councillors who had won on the BJP mandate in the 2020 polls either going into hiding or disassociating themselves from the party in the aftermath of the deadly protests. 

Even though more than a month has passed since the violence broke out, the party’s Ladakh unit headquarter on Choglamsar Road in Leh, which was set on fire by protesters, continues to remain closed amid a heavy deployment of security forces.

According to reports, the election is unlikely to be held very soon amid the ongoing talks between the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and the LAB-KDA combine. 

Political analysts believe that the delay in election is likely to open a window of respite for the saffron party which has faced a massive public backlash for allegedly presiding over one of the worst chapters of civilian atrocities in Ladakh. 

Analysts and civil society leaders alleged that the decision was aimed to favour the BJP and allowing it to regain the “lost ground” following the September 24 violence.

“The party is in a complete disarray facing internal power struggles. It (delay in election) would help the party leadership to set its house in order before the elections are held,” said a Leh-based political commentator who didn’t want to be named. 

Environmentalists and wildlife experts fear that the new districts would encroach into Ladakh’s Karakoram and Changthang wildlife sanctuaries, home to some of the most exotic and some endangered species of wildlife and expand the military footprint in the sensitive border region.

Ladakh was separated from Jammu and Kashmir and downgraded into a Union Territory without a legislature in 2019. Over the years, however, the initial euphoria over the fulfilment of one of Ladakh’s oldest demands by the BJP-led Union government has boiled down into a full-fledged agitation for constitutional safeguards and restoration of democracy.  

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