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| Congress not ready to stake claim, prefers to dump young elected representatives | | | Jehangir Rashid
Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Oct 28: More than a week has passed ever since results of Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) like other local bodies were announced, but till date the suspense continues as who would be new Mayor of Srinagar, summer capital of Jammu & Kashmir.
Although a former minister in Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) and Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) government in the state had claimed that decks have been cleared for his former party mate to become Mayor of Srinagar, no headway whatsoever has been made in this regard so far.
As soon as the results of SMC were out Sajad Gani Lone who headed the Science & Technology as well as Social Welfare departments in the Late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Mehbooba Mufti led PDP-BJP coalition governments between March 1, 2015 and June 19, 2018 had said that his former party mate Junaid Mattu would become the Mayor of Srinagar.
Sources told Early Times that over the past few days there has been a lull in the whole process of selection or nomination of Mayor for Srinagar. Sajad along with Junaid has also maintained a silence over this development and the picture is somewhat unclear as who would head the Srinagar for the next five years or so.
"The overwhelming victory of independents in the municipal polls in Srinagar has put parties like Congress and BJP to a disadvantage. None of these parties is in a position to claim for the formation of local government in Srinagar. Worse is the case with BJP since the party could win just four seats in SMC," said sources.
It would be in place to mention here that out of 74 wards independents won in the 53 wards. Congress received a shock in the elections as Asifa Tariq, wife of party leader Tariq Hameed Karra lost the election from the Lawaypora ward falling in the outskirts of Srinagar district. Asifa had won the last civic poll from Mujgund ward of Srinagar.
"It is somewhat perplexing that despite emerging as the single largest Congress has so far not staked any claim to form the local self government at SMC. The party has also failed to project any of its winners as the Mayoral candidate for Srinagar. It seems the party has resigned to the fact that its member cannot become Mayor of Srinagar," said sources.
Sources said that since two Kashmiri Pandits have won the municipal polls from two wards of Srinagar it was expected that Congress would project either of them for the post of at least Deputy Mayor from Srinagar. They said that failure on this part has caused resentment among the Kashmiri Pandits more so at a time when the government wants the Pandits to come back to valley.
"One among the two winners belonging to the Kashmiri Pandit community is very young and if groomed properly he can come up as a potential leader of party in the valley. However, for the same it is necessary that Congress bells the cat and gives an important position to the young and upcoming leader," said sources.
Pertinent to mention here that Lone had claimed that majority of the independents who won elections from Srinagar belonged to his party and as such his party Peoples Conference would form the next local government in Srinagar. It remains to be seen how far these claims are 'genuine' and correct. |
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