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Congress on Friday boycotted the election of mayor and deputy mayor of Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) in protest at the “open ballot” voting process.
BJP corporator Rajinder Sharma got 57 votes, while congressional candidate Dwarka Nath Choudhary got one vote, sources said.
The BJP and Congress were in a straight battle for mayor and deputy mayor positions.
Congressional corporations are boycotting the election in protest at the change of voting procedure from secret ballot to open ballot.
“The change from secret ballot to open ballot procedure was undemocratic. It hadn’t been done in the past. In protest, our corporations boycotted the poll,” J&K Congress chief spokesman Ravinder Sharma told PTI.
“Although we did not have the majority, we put our candidates in front of the competition. But this undemocratic move has forced us to boycott it,” he said.
The BJP insisted it had a majority and its mayoral candidate won the election by an overwhelming majority.
“The election for the post of mayor has taken place. A total of 59 votes were counted – 57 went to BJP candidate Rajinder Sharma, one vote was invalidated and one vote went to the congressional candidate,” BJP corporator Baldev Singh Billoria told. reporters here.
He said the election for the post of deputy mayor started later.
The posts fell vacant last month following the resignation of incumbent mayor Chander Mohan Gupta and his deputy Purnima Sharma, both of the BJP, to focus on strengthening the party ahead of the parliamentary elections to take place after the conclusion of the election. the ongoing special summary of electoral rolls.
Two candidates each – Rajinder Sharma and Baldev Singh of the BJP and Dwarka Nath Choudhary and Sonika Sharma of Congress – filed their papers for the two posts on the last day of nominations submission on Oct. 17, officials said.
In the 75-member Jammu Municipal Corporation, the BJP has 44 corporations, the Congress has 13 corporations, and the rest are independents.
Chander Mohan Gupta and Purnima Sharma took over their respective positions on November 15, 2018 after the BJP won the civic body in the Urban Local Bodies elections, which were held in four stages from October 8-16 in 2018 after a 13-year hiatus .
(This story was not edited by DailyExpertNews staff and was generated automatically from a syndicated feed.)