SRINAGAR: There is new drama at Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) just one-and-a-half month after Mayor Junaid Mattu was elected. Now the Congress party has filed a defection petition against its 10 councillors for voting in favour of Mattu despite the party whip, which was issued in favour of Sheikh Imran, former Deputy Mayor.
The petition was filed by Basharat-bin-Qadir, the Congress’s whip issuer, before the Chief Election Commissioner on December 22, seeking disqualification of its councillors. Today (Monday), the case was heard, following which January 12 has been set as the date for filing objections to the petition.
As per the notice, which is in possession of Kashmir Reader, the defection suit has been filed against Congress councillors Shafaat Gaffar, Sara Bilal, Shameema Khan, Zahoor Ahmad Rather, Farooq Ahmad Dar, Haseena, Syeda, Rasool Hajam, Gulshan Bilal, and Showkat kak.
“The above titled application under section 34-c of the Jammu and Kashmir Municipal Corporation Act regarding the disqualification on the ground of defection,” reads the notice.
The councillors were first scheduled to present themselves on January 6, which was deferred till today. Now they have to file their objection on Tuesday.
The counsel for Qadir said that the move would disqualify the councillors and new elections will be held. If that happens, it will be for the third time that elections will be held at the corporation ever since the councillors were elected in 2018.
Imran told Kashmir Reader that out of the 16 Congress councillors, 10 had defied the whip, making it easy for Mattu to win.
Mattu became the mayor of SMC for the second time after winning the mayoral elections. He got the support of BJP councillors and won with 62% of the total votes in the open ballot elections which were held at SMC’s corporate hall. Mattu was removed as the SMC mayor in June 2020 after he lost a no-confidence motion moved against him by some councillors.

Junaid Nabi Bazaz