Srinagar municipal body ousts deputy mayor, mayor stays

SRINAGAR: Over 45 corporators of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) on Monday filed “no confidence motion” against deputy mayor, Sheikh Imran, while supporting incumbent mayor, Junaid Azim Mattu, in the motion.
Chief coordinator of the Congress party, Aijaz Ahmad, said the corporators submitted “no confidence motion” against Sheikh Imran, the deputy mayor, and not against the mayor, Mattu.
Last week, the BJP corporators proposed to bring a “no confidence motion” against the mayor and the deputy mayor, hoping to install their own corporators in their stead, but the numbers were not in their favour, as they won only four seats in the polls for the 74-member SMC last year.
The Congress has the highest number of corporators at 17, the Peoples Conference (PC) has 15, while the NC has 11, while others are independent. The NC and the PDP boycotted the municipal polls last year, but they fielded proxies, sources said. Later the strength of the PC rose to 23 after eight independents joined the party.
Interestingly with four members in the Srinagar council, the BJP had proposed the name of Ashok Kaul, a Kashmiri Pandit and corporator of Karan Nagar, for the post of mayor while another Kashmiri Muslim corporator had been proposed for the post of deputy mayor.
Aijaz Ahmad said 47 corporators, including 23 from the PC, 17 from the Congress, and seven independents, forged a grand alliance and submitted “no confidence motion” against Sheikh Imran, adding that the corporators unanimously decided to support incumbent mayor, Junaid Mattu, in the motion.
Ahmad, however, said that the next deputy mayor would probably be from the Congress party. “The name for next deputy mayor has not been decided yet, but it will probably be from the Congress party. All the corporators will unanimously decide who will be the next deputy mayor,” he said.