Former minister of state and National Conference leader Feroz Ahmad Khan was Monday elected chief executive councilor (CEC) for the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council-Kargil, after his party made a late night power-sharing agreement with the Congress party. Khan was elected unopposed to head the Council.
It is for the first time that NC and Congress, arch-rivals in the district, have joined hands to steer the Council and keep the BJP away.
“All 30 councilors including those from PDP, BJP and nominated ones supported the motion for electing Khan as CEC,” Hajji Hanifa, the NC’s district president told Greater Kashmir.
Khan said that his party joined hands with Congress to “keep communal forces out of power” and to provide a “stable local self-government” to the district.
However, both the parties were “compelled” to come together after the government nominated four councilors. The nominations upset NC’s plan of forming the local government without the support of Congress.
After the elections held last month, NC emerged as the single largest party bagging 10 seats, followed by Congress with eight in the 30-member council.
Independents had walked away with five seats, while PDP and BJP won two and one respectively.
Son of the former Ladakh MP Ghulam Hassan Khan, Feroz was earlier twice elected to the Hill Council in 2003 and 2008.
He was elected as MLA from Zanskar Assembly segment in 2008 and was later inducted as junior minister in NC-Congress coalition government headed by Omar Abdullah.