Akalis claim majority in Ajnala nagar panchayat

Charanjit Singh Teja

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Tribune News Service

Amritsar, July 31

Though the Congress councillors proved their majority during the MC elections in Ajnala in April, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) councillors are now claiming their majority as one of the councillors unofficially joined the SAD group after she had expressed her resentment with the elected president of then nagar panchayat.

Deepak Arora of Congress was elected president of Ajnala civic body unanimously on April 15. There are a total 15 seats in Ajnala civic body out of which eight were won by candidates of SAD and 7 were of Congress. Later, Raminder Kaur Mahal, who contested on the SAD ticket, joined the Congress which later got the majority.

Due to internal friction among Congress councillors, the Congress representatives failed to call the meeting till the first week of July. The SAD councillors claimed that as per the rule, the elected house should call a meeting within 90 days.

Meanwhile, one of the Congress councillors Geeta Rani joined the Shiromani Akali Dal camp unofficially.

Finally on July 12, president Deepak Arora called a meeting but the SAD councillors, led by Jaspal Singh Dhillon, asked the Congress councillor to prove their majority before discussion on the agenda. The meeting was postponed and a second meeting was called on July 26. The Shiromani Akali Dal councillors claimed their majority and demanded majority test

Jaspal Singh Dhillon, councillor of SAD said, “We met Additional Deputy Commissioner to conduct the majority test and re-elect the president as Congress does not have a majority. Due to lack of majority, the Congress is not able to complete its quorum. The development work is suffering in the town due to this conflict.”

Deepak Arora, President, nagar panchayat, did not respond to the repeated phone calls.