Tsering Samphel

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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]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 National Commission for Scheduled Tribes. SHRI TSERING SAMPHEL, MEMBER NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR SCHEDULED TRIBES Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Mona Bhan (11 September 2013). Counterinsurgency, Democracy, and the Politics of Identity in India: From Warfare to Welfare?. Routledge. p. 68. ISBN   978-1-134-50983-6.
  3. Ravina Aggarwal (30 November 2004). Beyond Lines of Control: Performance and Politics on the Disputed Borders of Ladakh, India. Duke University Press. p. 72. ISBN   0-8223-3414-3.
  4. Election Commission of India. STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTION, 1987 TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF JAMMU & KASHMIR
  5. 1 2 Jacqueline H. Fewkes (27 October 2008). Trade and Contemporary Society Along the Silk Road: An Ethno-history of Ladakh. Routledge. p. 174. ISBN   978-1-135-97309-4.
  6. Selections from Regional Press, Vol. 25. Institute of Regional Studies. October 2006. p. 38.
  7. Navnita Chadha Behera (2007). Demystifying Kashmir. Brookings Institution Press. p. 121. ISBN   978-0-8157-0859-9.
  8. Amrita Basu; Srirupa Roy (6 March 2007). Violence and democracy in India. Seagull Books. p. 167. ISBN   978-1-905422-31-9.
  9. Women in Security, Conflict Management, and Peace (Program); Athwaas (Group) (2007). Women in Dialogue, Envisioning the Road Ahead in Jammu and Kashmir: a WISCOMP report. Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace, Foundation for Universal Responsibility of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. p. 73.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. State Times. Tsering Samphel starts Leh tour with Congress leaders
  11. Nils Ole Bubandt; Martijn Van Beek (12 March 2012). Varieties of Secularism in Asia: Anthropological Explorations of Religion, Politics and the Spiritual. Routledge. p. 94. ISBN   978-1-136-66864-7.
  12. Reach Ladakh. Congress gives MP mandate to Tsering Samphel
  13. Rising Kashmir. Samphel of Congress files nomination for Ladakh constituency Archived 5 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  14. Fayyaz, Ahmed Ali (18 May 2014). "Lowest victory margin at highest altitude". The Hindu.