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Tsering Samphel (born 25 June 1948) is an Indian politician. [1] Samphel supports the now fulfilled demand to give Ladakh Union Territory status. [2]
Tsering Samphel is the son of Sonam Wangyal. [1] He hails from the Boto people. [1] He did his university studies at the Sampurnanand Sanskrit University in Varanasi and the Punjabi University in Patiala. [1] Samphel was one of the key leaders of the Lamdon Social Welfare Society, a social reform group set up in 1969 by Ladakhi youth that had studied in Srinagar. The Lamdon Society sought to challenge the then dominant politicians in Ladakh. [3] Between 1971 and 1987 he served as president and secretary of the Lamdon Model Schools. [1]
In 1987 Samphel was elected to the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, standing as the Indian National Congress candidate in the Leh seat. He obtained 16,142 votes (56.39% of the votes in the constituency). [4] Following his tenure as Member of the Legislative Assembly, he served as Leh District Congress Committee president between 1990 and 1996. [1]
He served as the president of the Ladakh Buddhist Association between 1997 and 2004. [5] Between 1987 and 2004 he also served as Executive Director of the Leh Nutrition Project. [1] [5] As LBA president he was a key actor in setting up the Ladakh Union Territory Front. [6] Moreover, he is the founding secretary of the Ladakh Co-operative Transport Society. [1]
In December 2005 he reconstituted the Ladakh unit of the Indian National Congress, thereby challenging the position of the LUTF to be able to represent all Ladakhi Buddhists. This move caused a split in the LBA. [7] [8] He became the president of the Ladakh District Congress Committee. [9] [10]
As of 2012 Samphel was a member of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. [11]
On 20 March 2014 the Congress Party declared Samphel is its candidate for the Ladakh Lok Sabha seat in the parliamentary election. [12] He filed his nomination papers on 15 April 2014. [13] His friend turned foe Ghulam Raza lost by 36 votes, the closest margin in the 2014 election, to Thupstan Chhewang of the Bharatiya Janata Party. [14]
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