BJP councillors plan to bring no-trust motion over Extension in tenures of Mayor, Deputy Mayor

The controversy over extension in the tenures of the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor of the Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) refuses to subside. BJP councillors are planning to bring a no-confidence motion over the issue. They say that discussions are being held to introduce a no-confidence motion and several Congress councillors are also in touch with them and willing to extend their support to the no-confidence motion.

The Cabinet at a meeting held in October granted extension in tenures to the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor. As per the previous roster introduced in 2016, the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor were to change after a tenure of two and a half years. The decision to extend their tenures drew flak from the BJP councillors while several Congress councillors, who were in the line to be elected as the next Mayor and Deputy Mayor, were also irked.

Bittu Kumar, BJP councillor from Krishan Nagar ward, termed the Cabinet decision to extend the terms of the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor as unconstitutional and authoritarian. He said that the decision proved that the Congress government was anti-women and inclined to snatch their rights. He added that as per the roster, a woman was to become the next Mayor of Shimla but the government amended the notification and extended the tenures to the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor.

Bittu said that the Cabinet took the decision as the incumbent Mayor was a close associate of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu. “If the government intended to amend the roster, it should have done before the elections of the corporation. Now, amending the notification midway makes no sense and clearly indicates favourtism. All we want is the government to restore the roster or else we will launch an agitation against it,” he added.

Meanwhile, Congress councillors have cleared their stance that they have no issue with the state government, Chief Minister or the incumbent Mayor and stand strongly with the party and its ideology. However, they want the roster to be restored and an opportunity be given to women to become the next Mayor of Shimla, as the Municipal Corporation House has around 21 of them.

The Congress councillors along with the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor had held a meeting with the Chief Minister recently and expressed their grievances. The councillors had urged the Chief Minister that the roster be restored. Later, the Chief Minister had stated that all grievances of the councillors had been resolved and they had been asked to work in coordination.