Will announce names soon after okay from Nadda: BJP
Sanjeev K. Sharma
JAMMU, Oct 12: Authorities have notified that election for the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) shall be held on October 21 at 11 am by means of open ballot and the nomination papers for that shall be available in the office of JMC Secretary which after duly filled and signed by the candidates shall be delivered to the same office by or before October 17 from 10 am to 4 pm.
Sources informed that JMC authorities have today accepted the resignation of the incumbent Mayor, Chander Mohan Gupta along with Deputy Mayor, Purnima Sharma. Both were from BJP.
In a meeting of J&K BJP at a Club in the city on September 24, 2022, the JMC Mayor and Deputy Mayor had resigned from their posts as their tenure of two and half years, which was set at the time they both assumed their offices, was over much before but still they were allowed to continue due to COVID-19 pandemic.
Sources informed that as the COVID is over now, J&K BJP has decided to change the Mayor along with his Deputy and both have also agreed to that and are likely to get some important responsibility in the Party keeping in view the upcoming elections to J&K Legislative Assembly.
It is pertinent to mention here that BJP had won the Urban Local Body elections of JMC in 2018 with thumping majority of 43 seats while 18 Independents and 14 Congress members were also declared victorious in a House of 75 Councillors and the election for JMC was held at that time after a gap of 13 years.
Though two Councillors-one from BJP and another Independent have died now while some including Independents have joined either BJP or Congress, the BJP still has 44 members in a House of 75 ensuring easy victory to its candidate.
Meanwhile, an outspoken BJP Councillor, who is hopeful of winning the election of Mayor, has claimed that he will get support from many of his Party members and full support from Independents and Congress members.
When contacted J&K BJP president, Ravinder Raina said soon they will announce candidates for the post of Mayor and Deputy Mayor.
“As October 17 is the last date for filing nomination we will soon start activities in this regard,” he said, adding: “We have sent views and choices of all the BJP Councillors to National BJP President, J P Nadda and I have also talked to him on phone. He will give the final word on the names of Mayor and Deputy Mayor and we expect a response from him in this regard by October 15 after which we will have meeting with our Councillors to finalise the things.”
Chander Mohan Gupta and Purnima Sharma were made Mayor and Deputy Mayor respectively on November 15, 2018.
However, after nearly four years of the elected Mayor and Deputy Mayor have lapsed, the public at large in Jammu decries poor developments and blamed the elected body for not coming up to the expectations while corruption also remained talk of the town with the Anti Corruption Bureau having arrested one of the BJP Councillors along with her husband red handed while accepting bribe from a contractor.
Under all these circumstances whosoever will be the new Mayor and Deputy Mayor is likely to get a crown of thorns as there is hardly a year left for the Local Body to complete its mandatory five years.
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