In a prestigious direct contest with BJP, Congress candidate Tashi Tundup, on Saturday, won the bye-election for the Timisgam seat of Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) Leh with a margin of 273 votes.

The seat had fallen vacant after the death of the Congress councillor, Sonam Dorjey.

Advertisement

Tundup polled 861 votes against BJP candidate Dorjay Namgyal’s 588 votes. 67.36 per cent polling was recorded for the seat on Tuesday.

An official government spokesman said that a total of 1,467 votes were cast of which 861 were polled by Congress and 588 by the BJP while 14 went under NOTA category and four votes were rejected. The counting of votes was held amid tight security.

The BJP had put in a lot of effort to capture the seat. However, their strategy did not work for the voters. There were reports of annoyance among the electorate with the BJP government for not granting the Sixth Schedule to the UT of Ladakh.

It was only after the rejection of the nomination papers of the AAP candidate that elections turned into a direct contest between the BJP and Congress.

Since National Conference and PDP had not fielded their candidate non-BJP votes didn’t split.