Srinagar mayor removed after no-trust motion
SRINAGAR: Junaid Azim Mattu was on Tuesday removed as the Srinagar municipal corporation (SMC) mayor after he lost a no-confidence motion moved against him by some corporators.
The People’s Conference leader, whose election as Srinagar mayor had generated controversy two years ago, took to Twitter to announce his defeat.
“The vote of ‘No Confidence Motion’ against me, and the @JKPC_ (Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference) has been passed in the SMC with 42 votes out of 70. The @Bjp4india, @JKNC_ (Jammu and Kashmir National Conference) and some independents have polled against the @JKPC_ and @Incindia abstaining whip where 28 corporators abstained,” Mattu tweeted soon after losing the no-confidence motion at the city’s banquet hall.
“I respect the verdict of the corporation,” he said.
Mattu, who has survived a no-confidence motion in the past, claimed the BJP and the NC have joined hands in Srinagar. “The seemingly unthinkable seems to have happened as @JKNC_ and @Bjp4india have come together in Srinagar,” he tweeted. Also, the NC expelled four corporators from the party for voting in a no-confidence motion which resulted in Mattu’s removal as mayor of the SMC. “Ghulam Nabi Sufi, Danish Bhat, Neelofar and Majid Shulloo have been expelled after they defied the party whip to abstain from voting on the no-confidence motion,” NC spokesman Imran Nabi Dar said in a statement. “They have been expelled from the basic membership of the party for violating the whip,” he said.
Even after the expulsion of NC corporators, Mattu was critical of the party. In another tweet, he said: “After a near unanimous resolution of the council to remove the former deputy mayor who had joined hands with the BJP during his incarceration— the @JKPC_ officially extended support to @Incindia for the post of deputy mayor. And here is where things get interesting: The @JKNC_ yet again refused to be a part of the greater- @JKPC_ @Incindia, and JKNC ‘alliance’ limited to SMC when the current deputy mayor (an NC nominee) thwarted the JKPC-INC alliance by engineering two factions within @Incindia in the SMC— with an eye on the post.”
The BJP said it had nothing to do with the no-confidence motion. However, political analysts say that this move was jointly taken by independent legislators with the support of BJP.