Junaid Mattu fails in floor test, ousted as Srinagar Mayor

Excelsior Correspondent

Srinagar, June 16: Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) Mayor Junaid Azim Mattu today lost the floor test after 40 Corporators voted against him while others abstained from voting.
The special session of Corporation was held after the majority of Councillors had moved a no-confidence resolution against Mattu.

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Deputy Mayor of the SMC was among 41 Councillors present and 40 Councilors voted against Mayor while Deputy Mayor who presided the session didn’t vote. Under rules, the Presiding Officer has to vote in case of a tie.
An official of the SMC said that out of 70 Councillors, 40 voted against Mattu. It is worthwhile to mention here that Congress Councillors didn’t participate in the special session today and they abstained from voting.
There are 70 Councillors in SMC with BJP having 11 as 7 Independents later joined the party. Congress is leading the tally with 17 Corporators, PC has 15, NC 11 and there are 16 Independents.
Meanwhile, Mattu in his tweet said that he respected the verdict of Corporation.
“The vote of ‘No Confidence Motion’ against me, and the @JKPC_has been passed in the SMC with 42 votes out of 70. The @BJP4India, @JKNC_and some independents have polled against the @JKPC_and @INCIndia abstaining whip where 28 Corporators abstained,” Mattu tweeted.
Junaid said that NC and BJP were behind the no-confidence motion against him. “I respect the verdict of the Corporation. The seemingly unthinkable seems to have happened as @JKNC_ and @BJP4India have come together in Srinagar. But more on that later. Time to spend some time with my family after nearly four months of our war against #COVID19,” Mattu wrote on twitter.
Meanwhile, the authorities will hold fresh election for the post of SMC Mayor
Deputy Mayor, Perwaiz Qadri, said that Abdul Waheed Dar, an Independent Corporator from Zakura had submitted a resolution in the office of the Secretary. It was a no-confidence motion against Junaid Azim Mattu.
“In this regard, we had issued a notification stating that today the Floor Test will be conducted. When we convened the session, the no-confidence motion was passed with a majority. He himself abstained from voting. All the Councillors on the floor voted in favor of the motion”, he said.
He said that 41 Corporators participated in the floor test. “40 were in favour of the no-confidence motion and one was against it. The work of the Corporation will now be handled by the Deputy Mayor”, he said.
He said that Mayor has not come upto the expectations of the Councillors so there was no-confidence motion against him. “Surely, the works were not going as they should have been. The Corporators were not happy with us and it was the reason that the motion was passed against him”, he added.
The NC expelled four of its Corporators for defying the party whip during the SMC voting.
A statement issued by the NC said four Corporators of the party including Neelofar, Danish Bhat, Majid Shulloo and GN Sofi were expelled for defying the party whip to abstain from the voting process in the SMC.

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