The first-time Member Parliament from Ladakh constituency, Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, today resigned as Chief Executive Councilor of Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) Leh and as Councilor of Martselang constituency, on being elected to the house of people.
Namgyal submitted his resignation to the Deputy CommissionerLeh, Avny Lavas, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of LAHDC Leh.
The 34-year-old Namgyal who had a long dream of joiningpolitics, in short span of time became one of the strongest faces in Ladakhpolitics.
Earlier, he was personal secretary of veteran BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) leader and former Ladakh MP Thupstan Chhewang, who hadresigned from the primary membership of the party in November last year,claiming that all promises made by it sounded like an ’empty rhetoric.’
Namgyal, took over as the CEC of the BJP-led LAHDC Leh inNovember last year, immediately after the saffron party suffered a major polldebacle when it failed to open account in the civic polls which was swept bythe Congress.
He later contested election and won with a margin of approximately11,000 votes, reflective of the party’s growing popularity in a region withsizeable Buddhist and Shia Muslim population.
In his recent conversation, Namgyal categorically mentionedtwo popular demands of the residents of Ladakh—the union territory status andthe development.
“No other party supported the UT demand of Ladakhis, onlythe BJP is onboard from regional to national level. Hence, Ladakh’s politicalaspiration will be a priority. Ladakh is known as part of Kashmir but that isnot factually true. We have a different culture, ethnicity and even language.Valley-centric policies cannot be geographically implemented in Ladakh. Inevery respect, Ladakh must be separated from Kashmir,” said Namgyal.
He added this demand is not recent but “since 1948, Ladakhishave wanted to be a separate entity from Jammu and Kashmir”.
Namgyal educated in Leh’s Central Institute of BuddhistStudies. He graduated from the Jammu University. In college, he led studentgroups for the welfare of Ladakhi students.