Despite all out efforts Congress party on Thursday failed to wrest post of Mayor from the BJP candidate Kavinder Gupta who was once again re-elected as Mayor defeating Congress candidate Rajni Bala by a margin of single vote. Winning by just one vote made Kavinder Gupta No-1 once again.
Kavinder Gupta polled 35 votes while Rajni Bala garnered 34 votes in a tight finish.
The Congress party faced a humiliating defeat as Congress Corporators wilfully defied party whip issued by the PCC chief Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz to cast their vote in favour of Congress candidate.
In a house of 70 Corporators BJP with a strength of 25 members managed 10 more votes while Congress with a strength of 28 could manage only six extra votes of National Conference (NC). On the other hand National Conference (NC) candidate Dharma Veer Jamwal also managed to retain his seat and defeated his nearest rival with a wafer thin majority. Soon after the final results were declared supporters of Kavinder Gupta started celebrating their victory and greeted Gupta on becoming Mayor for the third term.
Dharam Veer Jamwal expressed shock over the defeat of congress candidate in the polls and thanked all his supporters who voted in his favour for the post of deputy mayor.
The congress party leaders made in charge of overseeing polls for the post of Mayor have taken strong note of the cross voting by few of their party Corporators. After thorough inquiry stern action will be taken against the black sheeps who crossed over and voted in favour of BJP candidate, the Congress leader said
Meanwhile, Rattan Lal Gupta, Provincial President J&K National Conference (NC), Jammu province has written to the concerned authorities to un-seat Surinder Singh Singhari as a Corporator of Ward No-27 of Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) in view of his expulsion from the party during Assembly elections for violating the party discipline.
Rattan Lal Gupta informed the media men while talking on the sidelines of the Mayor elections that Surinder Singh Singhari will be un-seated within one week in view of the law and his serious violations.
Gupta said on an earlier occasion similar action was taken against two Corporators of Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) who were un-seated and now Singhari will loose his membership of the Corporation.
Asked whether Singhari will be able to contest next Corporation elections, Gupta said if you go by the expulsions norms of the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council then a candidate can not contest any election for three years within the state in view of the Anti Defection Law of the state.
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