Postpone panchayat, municipal elections to April-May next year: Ladakh group

SRINAGAR Several groups in Ladakh on Monday (November 9, 2026) demanded postponement of panchayat and municipal elections and alleged the authorities were up to some mischief in the region, which saw street agitation over the demands of Statehood and Sixth Schedule in the past six years. Meanwhile, a shutdown call has been issued in Kargil over the election. “We suspect that this government is up to some mischief. We saw ‘vote chori’ in West Bengal, Bihar, Haryana, Maharashtra etc.

In entire India 13 crore voters were dropped from the voter list. Ladakh is a small region and fraud is easy,” said Ladakh Buddhist Association (LBA) chairman Tsering Dorjey Lakrook. Terming the upcoming panchayat and municipal elections as “conspiracy against people of Ladakh”, Mr. Lakrook, who is also co-chairman of the Leh Apex Body (LAB), said, “I warn people of Ladakh that these elections are a conspiracy.

People of Ladakh should stay awake. We demand postponement of these elections. Let the authorities first frame the constituencies and hold the election in April-May next year,” said Mr. Lakrook.