SRINAGAR: As uncertainty continues over the fate of the no confidence motion moved by 16 councillors against the Chief Executive Councillor (CEC) of the Kargil Hill Development Council in the Union Territory of Ladakh, the region's MP and the councillors are set to meet Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena on Thursday to seek the early convening of the council for a vote on the motion.
The no confidence motion was submitted last month by ruling National Conference (NC) and its ally Congress against the CEC for reneging on a two and a half year power sharing agreement between the two parties.
Ladakh MP and National Conference leader Haji Mohammad Hanifa Jan told TNIE that the UT administration was sitting on their no confidence motion against the Kargil Hill Council CEC by not convening the council.
He said the NC had asked incumbent Kargil Hill Council CEC Mohammad Jaffar Akhoon to resign and hand over power to the Congress after completing his two and a half year term.
As the NC and Congress had contested the Hill Council elections in October 2023 as allies, the two parties had reached an agreement on a rotational power sharing arrangement after two and a half years.
“However, the incumbent CEC Jaffar did not resign on completing his term and it forced the NC and Congress to bring a no confidence motion against him,” the MP said.
Sixteen councillors, including nine from Congress, five from the NC and two independents, signed the no confidence motion on May 14 and forwarded it to the Deputy Commissioner of Kargil for convening the council.
The NC's tenure ended on April 18 this year and power should have been transferred to the Congress, but the CEC has refused to resign.
The 30-member Kargil Hill Council comprises 26 elected and four nominated members. The NC has 12 councillors, Congress 10, the BJP six, including four nominated members, while there are two independents.
The election to the Kargil Hill Council was held on October 4, 2023.
The MP alleged that the Ladakh UT administration was sitting over the no confidence motion.
“I, along with all the 16 councillors, will be meeting LG Saxena today and hold deliberations with him in this regard. We will seek the early convening of the council meeting for holding the no confidence vote,” Haji Mohammad Hanifa Jan said.
Kargil Hill Council CEC Mohammad Jaffar Akhoon has refused to step down, saying circumstances have changed significantly since the 2023 council elections.
“Five more districts have been added in Ladakh including two in Kargil,” he had told this newspaper, claiming that if he resigned, the Kargil Hill Council would be abolished and development works in the district would come to a halt.
“I don’t want this to happen and am not resigning for this reason,” Akhoon said.
The controversy comes at a time when the Leh Hill Council has been without an elected body since October 2025. The BJP-led Leh Hill Council completed its five year term last year, but fresh elections have yet to be announced.
Since then, five new districts have been created in Ladakh, three in Leh and two in Kargil, raising questions about the future of the region's hill councils.
