Srinagar: Nearly 78 per cent of electorate on Wednesday voted in the elections to Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council- Kargil (LAHDC-K).

Officials said voters including women turned up in large numbers to exercise their franchise in the district. Long queues of enthusiastic voters were seen outside most of the polling stations.

This was the first-ever civic elections in Kargil district since Ladakh was carved out of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir on August 5, 2019 as a separate Union territory.

In these polls, the BJP is up against a united opposition of Congress and National Conference on 26 seats of the 30-member Council. 85 candidates were contesting the polls, with 22 representing the Congress, 17 from the NC, 17 from the BJP, four from the Aam Aadmi Party and 24 Independent candidates.

In previous Hill council polls, the NC and Congress used to be bitter opponents .

“But with the two parties having a pre poll alliance this time, it seems that results may be heavily

tilted in their favor,” said a political observer in Kargil.

Now the focus shifts the counting of votes which is scheduled for October 8. The new Hill council in Kargil will be in place before October 11.

The Hill council had over 95,000 registered voters and out of them 74026 exercise their franchise

Officials said the polling began at 8 am on a brisk note in Kargil district.

Saliskut constituency registered the highest voter turnout of 90.07 percent, followed by Gund Manglapur (84.33 percent).

There was no report of any violence during the ongoing polling so far.

This year the result of the Council polls is perceived by many as a referendum that if people of Kargil have accepted the decisions of August 5, 2019 by the union government.