BJP’s Rajinder Sharma and Baldev Billoria elected new mayor and deputy mayor of Jammu MC
Rajinder Sharma and Baldev Singh Billoria of the BJP were elected mayor and deputy mayor of the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) on Friday.
However, the arch-rival Congress boycotted the election to protest against the open ballot system. The BJP and the Congress were in a straight contest for the posts of mayor and deputy mayor, but the Congress corporators boycotted the election to protest against the change of procedure of voting from the secret ballot to an open ballot.
Congress, which had fielded Dwarka Nath Choudhary as its candidate for the post of mayor, got only one vote. A total of 59 votes were polled for the post of mayor out of which 57 went to BJP candidate Rajinder Sharma, one vote was invalid and one vote went to the Congress candidate.
For the post of deputy mayor, the BJP candidate Baldev Singh Billoria defeated Sonika Sharma of the Congress. The posts were lying vacant since September 24 last month following the resignation of incumbent mayor Chander Mohan Gupta and his deputy Purnima Sharma, both from the BJP.
The party had stated then that in the “interest” of BJP and keeping in mind the party’s “Mission 50 plus” at the next assembly elections, Jammu Municipal Corporation’s mayor Chander Mohan Gupta and deputy mayor advocate Purnima Sharma had resigned from their posts. In the 75-member Jammu Municipal Corporation, the BJP has 44 corporators, the Congress has 13 corporators and the rest are independents.
“BJP candidates have won with a thumping majority. We are thankful to the party leadership for giving an opportunity to the new workers to serve Jammu city and its people. Soon after assuming office, we will prepare a new roadmap for the holistic development of Jammu city and we will work honestly,” Billoria said.
On Congress boycott, he said, “The JMC constitution was amended two years ago for adopting the open ballot system and it was not done today. If Congress felt that it should have been a secret ballot, they should have taken up with the quarters concerned. However, they boycotted the elections to escape their embarrassing defeat. They deliberately abstained from the open ballot.”
The new incumbents have a period of 10 months before the next elections take place. However, Congress corporators who boycotted the election said the open ballot system was undemocratic.
“The change of procedure from secret voting to open ballot was undemocratic. It was not done in the past. In protest against this, our corporators have boycotted the polling,” the party’s chief spokesperson Ravinder Sharma told PTI.
“Although we did not have the majority, we have put our candidates for the contest. But this undemocratic step has forced us to boycott it,” he said. Two candidates each — Rajinder Sharma and Baldev Singh of the BJP and Dwarka Nath Choudhary and Sonika Sharma of the Congress had submitted their papers for the two posts on the last day of the filing of nominations on October 17.
In the 75-member Jammu Municipal Corporation, the BJP has 44 corporators, the Congress 13 corporators and the rest are Independents.
Chander Mohan Gupta and Purnima Sharma took over their respective posts on November 15, 2018, after the BJP won the civic body during the Urban Local Bodies elections which were held in four phases from October 8-16 in 2018, after a gap of 13 years.
