Mayor Sunil Jyoti has left SAD, Congress councillors gasping

Blunts attacks; senior deputy mayor yet to form SAD’s nine committees

JALANDHAR: Just a day ahead of the general house meeting of the Municipal Corporation Jalandhar (MCJ), mayor Sunil Jyoti has killed two birds with one stone.

After two and a half years of being in the mayor’s chair, Jyoti on Wednesday evening announced the list of 12 ad hoc committees, to look after the functioning of the civic body’s departments, with the councillors as its chairmen and members.

The mayor, who belongs to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had been until today targeted by councillors, both from within his party and the opposition, for delaying the formation of these ad hoc committees, saying the development was being compromised.

The agenda of the committees is due to be discussed on Tuesday, but observers say that by setting up these committees, Jyoti has blunted all voices against him and deflected their attack toward a new target – the committee members.

Moreover, it is the impeccable timing of the announcement that has left the opposition gasping, and wondering about new way to target the mayor.

Apar t from the timing, however, there’s more that the announcement has earned for the mayor. The setting up of the 12 ad hoc committees has cornered the senior deputy mayor, Kamaljit Bhatia, an Akali councillor.

The Akalis are the alliance partners of the BJP, but Bhatia and his colleagues are known to be vocal against the mayor’s policies, more so before and during the MCJ’s general house meetings.

The MCJ has 21 departments and an equal number of committees are required to be formed to review their functioning: in the present dispensation (with SAD-BJP alliance) the BJP would form 12 and the SAD nine.

However, the Akalis, during Bhatia’s earlier tenure as well, have yet to do so. Now, after Jyoti’s announcement, Bhatia is under pressure to announce his list, which has rendered him too busy ahead of the general house meeting to engage in attacking the mayor.

Another intelligent move by Jyoti is including councillors of the Congress’ dynamic group in the 12 committees. This achieve him two things. First, he has dealt a serious jolt to the opposition camp led by Jagdish Raja, as now Congress councillors would be responsible for their respective developmental agendas and cannot hold the mayor to account.

Second, Jyoti has left the Akalis with no option but to include councillors from the Raja camp in their committees.

This, observers say, is going to be quite a tough task for the SAD camp.

THE SETTING UP OF THE AD HOC PANELS HAS CORNERED THE SENIOR DEPUTY MAYOR, KAMALJIT BHATIA, WHO IS A SAD COUNCILLOR