Party humbles NPP, Cong combine
Avtar Bhat
UDHAMPUR, Nov 19: BJP today received a short in arm after winning the post of chairman and vice chairman of the prestigious Udhampur Municipal Council (UMC) and posts of presidents and vice presidents of twin Municipal Committees of Chenani and Ramnagar in the Udhampur district.
In a tough contest for the post of chairman and vice chairman of UMC, the elections of which were held here today, BJP humbled the Opposition NPP-Congress combine.
The BJP candidate, Dr Yogeswar Gupta was declared elected for the post of chairman of UMC by securing 11 votes out of total 21. He defeated his rival and JK National Panthers Party(JKNPP) candidate, Sunil Paroch by one vote while for the post of vice chairman, BJP candidate, Surinder Singh Khalsa defeated the opposition candidate, Preeti Khajuria by five votes. Khalsa got 13 votes while the opposition candidate got eight votes only.
It may be recalled that BJP which had won four seats only increased its tally in UMC to nine after five members of MLA Pawan Gupta faction led by Dr Yogeshwar Gupta joined the party yesterday. The party also managed to win the support of two Independent candidates to sail through in the elections which were conducted under the supervision of Additional Deputy Commissioner Udhampur, Gurvinderjeet Singh who declared both Dr Gupta and Khalsa elected to the post of chairman and vice chairman respectively of UMC.
This is the second Municipal Council in the Jammu region after Kathau which was bagged by the BJP.
BJP senior leaders including former Deputy Chief Minister and MLA, Kavinder Gupta senior vice president, Pawan Khajuria and general secretary, Dr Narinder Singh were also present on the occasion and later talking to media persons they termed it as victory of nationalist forces and policies and programmes of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi led NDA Government at the Centre.
But the BJP activists gave full credit to Kavinder Gupta and Dr Narinder Singh for this victory saying that it became possible after they took keen interest in merger of Pawan Gupta faction in the party. They also gave full credit to Pawan Khajuria and MLA Pawan Gupta for their cooperation and the maturity shown by them in making the merger possible.
Kavinder Gupta while talking to reporters said that the credit goes to hard work of BJP activists for this victory.
A victory procession was also taken on the occasion in which besides Pawan Gupta and Pawan Khajuria, other senior BJP leaders also participated.
For the seven member Chenani Municipal Committee (CMC) the elections of which were also held today, BJP Councilor, Manik Gupta and Amit Abrol were elected unopposed as president and vice president today.
They later took the oath of office and secrecy. The function was held under the supervision of E O and Tehsildar Chenani. MLA Chenani Dina Nath Bhagat, who played key role in the unanimous election of president and vice president, also attended the function. The BJP had support of five Councilors in the seven member CMC.
BJP also dominated the Ramnagar Municipal Committee (RMC) for the first time after its Councilors won the election to the post of president and vice president respectively.
BJP candidate Makhan Lal and Sumit Gupta were elected as president and vice president of RMC respectively. Makhan Lal defeated JKNPP candidate Ramesh Kumar by a margin of one vote in 13 member RMC, Makhan Lal secured seven votes while Ramesh got six votes.
For the post of vice president Sumit Gupta of BJP defeated JKNPP backed Independent candidate Sanjeev Kumar by a margin of one vote. Sumit got seven votes and Sanjeev could manage only six votes.
MLA Ramnagar, R S Pathania was also present on the occasion and he said this was for the firsttime that BJP has won the RMC elections. He said the party lost one seat by margin of three votes and other two seats by a margin of 15 and 13 votes respectively.
The newly elected president and vice president resolved to work for the alround development of all Wards of Ramnagar while addressing their supporters later.
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