Leh council to get new CEC today
The Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Leh, is set to get a new Chief Executive Councillor (CEC) as all 26 newly elected councillors will take oath in the presence of top leaders of the BJP and PDP at the historic Polo Ground in Leh on Tuesday.
After the oath-taking ceremony, the Deputy Commissioner, Leh, Prasanna Ramaswamy G, who serves as Chief Executive Officer of the LAHDC, Leh, will convene the first session of the newly elected council at the Secretariat, where elected councillors will elect the new CEC. Four Executive Councillors will be appointed following the election of the CEC.
The Principal and District Sessions Judge, Leh, will administer the oath to all newly elected councillors in the presence of top leaders of two parties, including BJP’s national general secretary Ram Madhav, BJP’s national vice-president and J&K affairs in charge Avinash Rai Khanna, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh, Education Minister and Cabinet spokesperson Naeem Akhter and state BJP president Jugal Kishore Sharma.
Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was scheduled to attend the oath-taking ceremony, but had to cancel his visit due to some preoccupation. PDP president Mehbooba Mufti will attend the function and address newly elected councillors and local populace at Polo Ground.
According to rules governing the council, the Deputy Commissioner, Leh, has called a meeting of newly elected councillors for Tuesday to elect the new CEC.
In the 30-member council, the government can nominate four councillors before election of the CEC as all of them have voting rights. The PDP-BJP government has decided to go in for nominations after the council is sworn-in so that the BJP, which has 18 seats, can get its CEC nominee elected comfortably. The Congress won five seats, the NC two and Independent one in the elections held on October 17.
Although the PDP and BJP had contested the council elections separately, they had been trying to give a message to people across the state that there were no differences between the coalition partners and the government was being run in complete harmony, said sources.
