Rintu, Bittu mayors of Amritsar, Patiala
Amid boycott by Sidhu and his camp, holy city gets first Sikh mayor; royal city sees rise of Preneet’s loyalists amid bonhomie
AMRITSAR/PATIALA Even as local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhu and 17 councillors with him skipped the first meeting of the newly elected House of the municipal corporation (MC) in Amritsar, Karamjit Singh R intu, 45, of the Congress was elected mayor on Tuesday, becoming the first Sikh among seven mayo rs of the holy city since the corporation was formed in 1991.
In Patiala, Sanjiv Sharma Bittu, 44, of the Congress was unanimously chosen as the fifth mayor of the city. Here, chief minister Capt A marin der Singh, being the local M LA, is a member of the MC, though he was not present. Yogi n der Singh Yogi—a first-time councillor who is known, like Bittu, to be in the camp of former local MP and the CM’s wife Preneet Kaur — was elected as senior deputy mayor, and Vinti Sangar, a councillor from the Schedule Castes category, became deputy mayor.
Jalandhar will choose its mayoral incumbent son January 25.
The MC in Amritsar chose Raman Bakshi as senior deputy mayor and Younis Kum ar as deputy mayor, thus giving representation to Hindu and Dal it communities too.
Rintu is the first full-time Sikh mayor of Amritsar, though it must be underlined that Lakha Singh Gumtala, the then senior deputy mayor, acted as officiating-mayor for a month in2000 for a city known to be the religious capital of the Sikhs.
As for why Sidhu and his supporters skipped the meeting, he had already expressed his feelings over not being “invited” for the meeting while interacting with the media on Monday.
He wanted to be consulted for choosing mayor soft he three corporations that saw elections on December 17, it is learnt from leaders in the party.
HIGH COMMAND’ S CALL
On Tuesday, the process of mayoral elections for Amritsar began at 11 am. Rural development minister Tript Rajin der Singh Bajwa was outside the House as a party observer. Inside, after a brief meeting attended by 68 councillors — 47 of Congress, 13 of SADBJP and eight independents — divisional commissioner Raj Kamal Chaudhari and MC commissioner Sonali Giri administered the oath to councillors.
Immediately after, Amritsar Central MLAOP Soni, who is an ex officio member for being a local MLA, rose and announced the names for mayor, senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor, as decided by the party high command.
And the House unanimously accepted the decision.
In the first reaction after being elected, Rintu said, “I will do my duty honestly and workhard for the development of the holy city .”
Besides Sidhu and his 17 supporting councillors, Amritsar South MLA Inderbir Singh Bolaria was also not present.
IN CAPTAIN’S CITY, LOOKINGAHEAD
In Patiala, health minister Brahm Mohindra, who being MLA of Patiala Rural is also a member of the corporation, proposed the name of Bittu.
And he was announced elected unanimously as Congress has 59 members in the House of 60. The SAD has one councillor.
Unlike Amritsar, where minister Navjot S idhu boycotted the proceedings, Patiala saw rare bonhomie between the camps of Brahm Mohindra and Preneet Kaur.
The mayoral posts all went to Preneet’s camp as Mohindra announced that he would not ask for any post for his supporters because it’s Preneet who has to face the 2019 Lok Sab ha elections and thus she should have her team in place to garner maximum support.
Preneet thanked Mohindra and said that heist he senior most leader of the party in Patiala.
Bittu formally assumed office in the presence of Preneet and ministers Brahm Mohindra and Sadhu Singh Dharamsot.
The party also carried out a victory march in which Bittu and others paid obeisance at various religious places.