Four candidates left in fray for Ladakh's only Lok Sabha seat as prominent leader Sajad Kargili withdraws his candidature

Prominent social activist Sajjad Hussain, popularly known as "Sajjad Kargili" on Sunday withdrew his nomination paper from the Ladakh Parliamentary constituency to ensure unity among opposition leaders to defeat BJP.

A senior leader of the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) Sajjad Kargili had filed his nomination papers as an Independent candidate and he was facing pressure from different quarters to withdraw his nomination papers to a joint candidate of Kargil Congress and National Conference Haji Hanifa Jan.

Sajad Kargili is a mass-base leader of Ladakh. He was runner-up on this seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections

In the 2019 elections the BJP candidate Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, recorded an impressive victory margin of 10,930 votes over NC, PDP, and Islamiya School Kargil joint candidate, Sajjad Kargili. Namgayal polled 42,914 votes as against Sajjad Karigili's 31984.
After the decision of Kargili to withdraw his candidature, now four candidates left in the fray for the Ladakh Lok Sabha seat.

Nominations of three candidates already rejected during scrutiny

The Returning Officer said on Saturday that nominations of two covering candidates and an Independent were already rejected during scrutiny of papers for the Ladakh parliamentary constituency.

Of the four remaining candidates, BJP's Tashi Gyalson and Congress's Tsering Namgyal are from Leh. The three Independents, Mohmad Haneefa Jan, and Kacho Mohammad Feroz are all from Kargil.
After scrutiny, the nomination forms of five candidates were found valid, while the candidatures of BJP's and Congress's covering candidates Stanzin Lakpa and Smanla Dorje Nurboo were cancelled.
The nomination of Independent candidate Ghulam Nabi Zia, whose form was found incomplete, was rejected.

Ladakh is the largest constituency in the country.

Ladakh Lok Sabha constituency, the largest in the country with a total area of 173.266 sq km and more than 1.82 lakh voters will go to polls in the fifth phase of elections on May 20.
The last date for withdrawal of the candidature is May 6.

This Parliamentary constituency is comprised of two districts Leh and Kargil. Leh district is predominantly inhabited by Buddhists, while Kargil is dominated by Shia Muslims. Two districts are ideologically poles apart and a verdict divide between two districts is always noticed at the time of parliamentary elections.

The veteran leader Thupstan Chhewang won the Ladakh Lok Sabha seat from the BJP for the first time in 2014. He resigned from the party in 2018 and is presently heading the Leh Apex Body.

The BJP managed to retain the seat in the 2019 general election when the party's youth leader Jamyang Tsering Namgyal won by over 10,000 votes. 

This time BJP dropped Namgyal and allocated manadate to Tashi Gyalson.
After showing resentment, Namgyal later joined the campaign for the party nominee Gyalson on Friday, ending the over-week-long uncertainty in the party camp.