Srinagar: Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) member of Parliament from Ladakh constituency of Jammu and Kashmir, Thupstan Chhewang, on Thursday announced his resignation from the Lok Sabha and the party.
He sent a brief letter to the party’s president in Jammu and Kashmir in this regard. ”I have to inform you that I am resigning from party membership on health grounds with immediate effect,” Chhewang wrote in his letter. “I am also writing separately to the speaker Lok Sabha for resignation as Mp from Ladakh parliamentary constituency,” the letter stated.
Thupstan Chhewang was taken as National Executive member of the BJP and later he was elected to the Lok Sabha on BJP mandate. He secured 31111 votes and trounced Congress that scored only 26402 votes.
Chhewang has been founding chairman of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Leh from 1995 to 2004. He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2004. His 2014 stint is the second in parliament. It was not immediately known why the senior Ladakh leader who was the face of the BJP in the region put in his papers. Earlier he founded the Ladakh Buddhist Association that spearheaded the agitation that led to the setting up of LAHDC in 1995.
The senior leader’s resignation has come as a surprise. Citing sources in Leh, Kashmir Life reported that he was “very unhappy” over certain party decision in the region in which his suggestions were not taken into consideration.
