The results thrown up in the Ladakh Hill Development Council (LAHDC-K) elections will make it an uphill task for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to retain the Lok Sabha seat of Ladakh in the upcoming 2024 elections.
The BJP was able to win just two seats out of 26 constituencies that went to polls on October 4, 2023. The victory margin on the two seats of Cha and Stakchay Khangral constituencies was not significant for the party. The BJP won the Cha constituency by a margin of 234 votes and the Stakchay Khangral by 177 votes.
Except for these two seats, the BJP managed to pose a stiff fight only in the Buddhist-majority Padum constituency, where it bagged 1691 votes against the NC’s 1745 votes. The BJP’s performance comes in spite of two senior BJP leaders Meenakshi Lekhi and Tarun Chugh joining the local leadership to campaign for the party in length and breadth of the region. Ladakh, after becoming a Union Territory in 2019, is ruled directly by the Centre, which is pushing several development initiatives in the region.
