Independent Triumph: Haneefa's Historic Win in Ladakh

Independent candidate Mohmad Haneefa won the Ladakh Lok Sabha seat by 27,906 votes, defeating Congress's Tsering Namgyal and BJP's Tashi Gyalson. He secured 65,303 votes, promising to advocate for local demands including statehood and job opportunities. A victory march was held in Kargil following his win.

Independent candidate Mohmad Haneefa has emerged victorious in the Ladakh Lok Sabha constituency, defeating his nearest rival Tsering Namgyal of Congress by a substantial margin of 27,906 votes. This win wrests the seat from BJP, a party that claimed it during the previous elections in 2014 and 2019.

The result was declared by Ladakh Returning Officer Santosh Sukhadeve, who confirmed that Haneefa secured 65,303 votes, while Namgyal received 37,397 votes, and BJP's Tashi Gyalson got 31,956 in a competitive triangular contest. NOTA garnered 912 votes.

Haneefa, aging 55 and a resident of the Barsoo area in Kargil, has long supported continued dialogue with the Centre on a four-point agenda, pushing for statehood for Ladakh, inclusion in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, separate Lok Sabha seats for Leh and Kargil, and employment opportunities for locals. Celebrating the unexpected level of public support, he promised to voice these demands within and outside Parliament. Following his win, a victory march was organized in Kargil by the KDA, where participants reiterated their four-point demands for the union territory.