Srinagar: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is making an all-out effort to wrest the control of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC). The party already controls the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC).
A day after Mayor Junaid Azim Mattu, in a pre-emptive move to stop the BJP from dislodging him, reportedly struck a deal with the Congress and got a no-confidence motion, moved against his Sheikh Imran, the saffron party on Tuesday moved a similar motion against him.
Mr Imran is among several hundred political leaders and activists, trade union leaders and members of civil society groups incarcerated ahead or immediately after the Centre stripped Jammu and Kashmir of its special status and split the state up into two union territories on August 5. Mr Muttu too was among the detainees but was set free later.
The no-confidence motion against Mr Imran secured the support of 47 out of 70 corporators of the SMC, leading to his removal on Monday. Ironically, Mr. Imran had earlier this year publicly pledged his support to Mr Muttu, ending to the acrimony that existed between the two.
Mr. Mattu, who left the National Conference (NC) after he disagreed with the decision of the state’s oldest political party to boycott the civic polls in October last year, had joined hands with the then BJP ally and Peoples’ Conference (PC) chairman Sajad Gani Lone.
These elections covered 79 municipal bodies with an electorate of about 1.7 million across the erstwhile state.
Among the other parties in fray, the BJP had emerged as the largest party in the Jammu divisions and the Congress had done marginally better in the Kashmir Valley. Among the prominent winners was Mr Mattu who was subsequently elected Mayor of Srinagar with the support of the BJP and independents.
Ironically, the BJP backed-independent corporators have now moved the no-confidence motion against him. The sources in the SMC said that the motion against him was supported by 40 corporators including those from BJP, which claims that some of them switched sides.
