Congress, NC win Kargil hill council polls

The Congress has won 10 seats, the regional National Conference (NC) won eight and independent candidates won six seats in elections to the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) Kargil in Jammu and Kashmir.

Counting for 24 seats was taken up Wednesday. Of the total of 26 seats, two were won by independent candidates unopposed. One unopposed independent candidates was supported by the NC.

Although the Congress and the NC are running a coalition government in the state, the two parties had fielded candidates for the LAHDC Kargil against each other.

Of the six independent candidates who fought and won the elections, three were supported by the NC and one by the Congress.

The LAHDC Kargil has a total of 30 seats, out of which 26 have to be elected by direct voting by people of Kargil district while four seats are to be nominated by the state government.

Lok Sabha MP Ghulam Hassan Khan also contested the LAHDC Kargil elections on NC mandate and was declared elected from the Silmoo seat.

Khan had fought the last Lok Sabha elections as an independent candidate backed by the NC in 2009.

Khan is believed to be the NC favourite for the post of chief executive councillor (CEC), Asgar Ali Karbalai is believed to be the Congress favourite.

In the outgoing LAHDC Kargil, the NC had 18 members and the Congress had eight.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the People's Democratic Party (PDP) had also fielded candidates for the council polls, but neither party has won any seat.