1st Key Poll Since Article 370 Scrapping…
On Wednesday, 04 October 2023, Voting began in Ladakh for Autonomous Hill Development Council elections in Kargil.
It is the first key poll to be conducted in Ladakh as a Union Territory (UT) after Article 370 was scrapped in August 2019.
A total of 85 candidates are in the fray for 26 seats in Ladakh.
Ahead of the elections, mock polls were conducted at the polling stations. "We have a total of 278 polling stations.
Police arrangements have been made to carry out free and fair elections.
Out of the 278 stations, 114 are hyper-sensitive and 99 are sensitive polling stations," Shrikant Balasaheb Suse, Deputy Commissioner Kargil said.
The election is set to observe a battle between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the National Conference-Congress alliance.
While Kargil has long been a National Conference stronghold with the Congress usually the opposition, the parties have stitched a pre-poll alliance to keep the BJP from gaining a foothold in the region.
The elections for the Hill Development Council are being viewed as a litmus test for the Centre's decision to scrap Article 370 and demote Ladakh to a union territory, over four years ago.
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