LEH: The Congress on Saturday retained Timisgam seat in the BJP-led Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), with its candidate defeating the BJP candidate by 273 votes in the by-election, officials said.
Congress candidate Tashi Tundup won the by-election for 22-Timisgam constituency, by polling 861 votes against 588 polled by the BJP's Dorjay Namgyal, they said.
Senior Congress member Jairam Ramesh congratulated the Congress committee in Ladakh and also took a dig at the BJP's central leadership and Ghulam Nabi Azad, who quit the grand old party recently.
"Here is some breaking news for Modi, Shah and Azad. The Congress party has defeated the BJP by a convincing margin in the Temisgam bye-election to the Ladakh Hill Council. Congratulations to the Ladakh District Congress Committee!," he said on Twitter.
The by-election in the constituency was necessitated following the death of sitting Congress councillor Sonam Dorjey.
The voting, held on September 13, saw 98.7 per cent polling, the officials said, adding, the counting of votes started this morning and 1,449 votes of the total 1,467 votes polled were considered.
Fourteen voters had opted for NOTA and four votes were rejected.
In October 2020, the BJP had retained power by winning the election to the 26-member LAHDC by bagging 15 seats.
The Congress had won nine seats, and two seats were bagged by Independent candidates.