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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday announced Tashi Gyalson, a former party general secretary of the Ladakh unit, as its candidate from the Ladakh constituency replacing its current MP Jamyang Tsering Namgyal from the Lok Sabha seat.
Tashi Gyalson is a councillor from the Lingshed constituency and in 2020 was elected as chairman and chief executive councillor of the 6th Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, (LAHDC), Leh. He joined the BJP after the BJP-PDP coalition government in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir collapsed. He was then a member of the PDP. Speaking to ANI on his candidature Tashi Gyalson said, "I thank PM Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, party national president JP Nadda, and party leaders, and workers for showing confidence in me." "I do not think it is that challenging in Ladakh because a lot of work has been done in Ladakh. I have confidence that people will trust PM Modi and BJP will win," he said. Ladakh will go to polls on May 20. In 2014, BJP won the lone Lok Sabha seat from Ladakh with the slimmest of margins that year (36 votes), and in 2019 it was feted for fulfilling a long-pending promise of abrogation of Article 370. The party's candidate Jamyang Namgyal won the seat in 2019 with a margin of 10,000 votes. Meanwhile, activist Sonam Wangchuk is protesting for statehood and the 6th Schedule for the Ladakh Union Territory. The people of Ladakh are demanding statehood, inclusion under the 6th schedule of the Indian Constitution, and other rights. The key demands include- statehood and inclusion under the 6th Schedule of the Indian Constitution, which grants special rights to tribal communities, and stronger ecological protections for Ladakh. The people also demanded an end to the clampdown on peaceful protests, the lifting of the internet ban, and the revocation of Section 144 CRPC, which prohibits the assembly of more than four people in certain areas. Earlier, on April 5, Section 144 was imposed in Ladakh's Leh following the ongoing protest. (ANI)
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