Leh, Oct 26: The ruling Bharatiya Janta Party on Monday retained power in the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Leh by winning 15 out of 26 seats for which polling took place last week.
The BJP bagged 15 seats while Congress and independents walked away respectively with nine and two seats.
This was the first election Hill Council election held after granting of Union Territory status to Ladakh by Central government on August 5, 2019.
In the last Hill Council Leh election held in 2015, BJP had secured 18 seats while Congress bagged just 5 seats. Two seats were won by National Conference and one went into kitty of an independent candidate.
The Aam Admi Party (AAP) of Arvind Kejriwal, which was fighting its maiden election in Ladakh this time, failed to open its account.
Both National Conference and PDP did not contest the election.
In the 30-member Hill council, elections are held only for 26 seats while government nominates members for remaining four seats.
As per results, BJP won Turtuk, Hundar, Diksit,Tegar,Panamik,Tangste,
On the other, Congress secured victory from Sakti,Igoo, Upper Leh, Lower Leh, Phyang,Basgo, Sapsol, Temisgam and Skurbuchan.
The independents managed to win Chushul and Nyoma seats.
The biggest setback to BJP came from Sakti segment with its outgoing Chief Executive Councillor Gyal P. Wangyal losing from there.
The Congress won the seat by defeating Aam Admi Party by narrow margin of 20 seats. This was the only seat where AAP, which had fielded 19 candidates, was runner-up.
It is worthwhile to mention here that four central ministers- Mukthar Abbas Naqvi, Kiren Rijju, Anurag Thakur and G. Kishan Reddy- campaigned for BJP candidates in the district where only 89000 persons had voting rights—(KNO)