Prestigious Jammu MC goes to BJP

Sumit Hakhoo

Tribune News Service

Jammu, October 20

The BJP swept the prestigious Jammu Municipal Corporation (MC) with a thumping majority in the urban local bodies elections, the results of which were declared on Saturday.

Independents, who gave a tough fight to candidates fielded by mainstream parties, were a surprise package. The Congress, on the other hand, was decimated.

With victory over 43 out of 75 Jammu MC wards, the BJP emerged as the single largest party. The Congress, the main contender against the saffron party in Jammu, managed to grab only 14 seats, while Independents secured 18 seats.

It is BJP’s best performance in the civic polls so far despite a lot of speculations about internal bickering over ticket allotment and general resentment among Jammu people against the party for its failure to fulfil its Assembly poll promises. The BJP had won 25 seats in the 2005 municipal elections, while the Congress, which was the ruling party then, had secured 26 seats.

Since morning, the counting centre at Government Polytechnic College was abuzz with activity, as candidates and their supporters were eagerly waiting for the results.

In Ward No.11 (Mohalla Malhotrian), there was recounting of votes after BJP workers raised an objection to the result. The ward was won by Anita Sharma, an Independent. It was a setback for Kavinder Gupta, former Deputy Chief Minister and BJP MLA, as his brother lost to an Independent candidate from Janipur (Centre), which is Ward No.36.

“The BJP candidate from Ward No.11 was not satisfied with the result, so recounting was done. The result was again in favour of the Independent candidate,” said Ramesh Kumar, district election officer.

As soon as it emerged that the BJP was winning, party workers started celebrating across the city.

A total of 75 wards of the Jammu MC witnessed 61.92 per cent voting on October 8 during the first phase of the civic elections. As many as 447 candidates were in the fray.

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Defunct media centre adds to agony of journalists

Jammu: The defunct media centre established by the district administration at the counting centre added to the agony of journalists covering the counting of votes for the urban local bodies elections at Government Polytechnic College here. There was total non-cooperation from the staff and confusion prevailed throughout the day with mediapersons not getting regular updates on results. Due to security reasons, journalists were not allowed inside the counting hall and were kept confined to the media centre in the college auditorium. Even in this digital age, the administration and election authorities, despite repeated requests, failed to provide complete update till 5 pm despite the results having been declared in a majority of the Jammu municipal wards by 2 pm. TNS

Candidates, supporters throng counting centre

Jammu: It was a day of celebrations for some and time for introspection for others at Government Polytechnic College here where the counting of votes for the Jammu municipal corporation and other urban local bodies of the district was held. The polls were held on October 8 with over 68 per cent voter turnout. While the candidates and their agents were inside the college premises, thousands of their supporters had gathered on the road outside. The police had to divert the traffic via the Vikram Chowk-Gandi Nagar flyover as there was no space for vehicles to move. Since 8 am, people started thronging the counting centre where a heavy deployment of the police kept things under control. TNS

Party workers’ commitment led BJP to success: State BJP chief

Jammu: State president of the BJP Ravinder Raina has attributed the party’s overwhelming success in the urban local bodies elections in the Jammu Municipal Corporation to the workers and voters’ strong commitment. “People are committed to the developmental agenda which needs to reach the grass-roots level. The BJP is the only party which can empower people,” said Raina. The state BJP president, however, did not comment on the party’s overall performance, which has not been up to the mark. He said the saffron party’s visibility in Kashmir had proved that the boycott call by separatists and other political parties was a great setback to them. TNS

Except JMC, BJP loses ground in Jammu region 

Jammu: Notwithstanding the BJP’s boastful claims of sweeping the urban local bodies elections in the state, the party’s net seat share has drastically come down by nearly 27 per cent in its stronghold Jammu region as compared to its performance during the last Assembly elections in 2014. The party, however, managed to top the winning tally by registering victory over 212 municipal wards of the total 520 wards in 10 districts of the Jammu division. The Independents, including the BJP and the Congress rebels, stood at second slot with 185 seats. The only solace for the BJP was that it performed “exceptionally well” in the prestigious Jammu municipal corporation (JMC) where it won 43 of the total 75 wards. In the 2014 Assembly elections, the party had won 25 of the 37 seats having the net seat share of 67.56 per cent. However, the party’s seat share in civic polls, after Saturday’s results, has come down to 40.77 per cent, thereby registering a decline of about 27 per cent. Barring Jammu district, the BJP’s performance in civic polls either remained average or abysmally low, probably due to anti-incumbency factor and other local issues.  In Jammu district, the party managed to win 92 of the total 154 seats followed by 34 Independents and 28 of the Congress. In Kathua district, the main stronghold of the BJP, the party seemed to have lost its ground as it won only 34 of the 80 municipal wards. This is despite the fact that the party’s bigwigs including Union Minister in PMO Jitendra Singh, Speaker J&K Assembly Nirmal Singh and former Cabinet minister Rajiv Jasrotia represent Kathua district. Arteev Sharma

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Winners of Jammu Municipal Corporation 

1 Purnima Sharma BJP

2 Jagdish Kumar IND

3 Narottam Sharma BJP

4 Sunita Koul BJP

5 Gopal Gupta BJP

6 Mohi-ud-Din CONG

7 Ritu Chowdhary CONG

8 Akshay Sharma BJP

9 Sunit Kumar BJP 

10 Anil Kumar BJP

11 Anita Sharma IND

12 Jeet Kumar BJP

13 Rama Kumari CONG

14 Pramod Kapahi BJP

15 Sandhya Gupta IND

16 Rajinder Sharma BJP

17 Nidhi Mangotra BJP

18 Dinesh Gupta BJP

19 Amit Gupta IND

20 Rahul Kumar BJP

21 Bhanu Mahajan CONG

22 Jaideep Sharma BJP

23 Pawan Singh BJP

24 Anu Bali IND

25 Arun Kumar BJP

26 Hardeep Mankotia BJP

27 Charanjeet Kour CONG

28 Gourav Chopra CONG

29 Surinder Singh BJP

30 Sonika Sharma CONG

31 Sucha Singh IND

32 Sat Paul BJP

33 Chander Mohan BJP

34 Rani Devi IND

35 Yash Paul (Mantoo) BJP

36 Subash Sharma IND

37 Sunita Gupta BJP

38 Surinder Sharma BJP                      

39 Rajinder Singh CONG

40 Neelam BJP

41 Sajay Baru BJP

42 Vijay Chowdhary IND

43 Surjit Singh BJP

44 Inder Singh IND

45 Raj Rani BJP

46 Dwarka Nath CONG

47 Sharda Kumari BJP

48 Sham Lal IND

49 Kamal Jamwal CONG

50 Neena Gupta BJP

51 Raj Kumar IND

52 Ajay Gupta BJP

53 Jyoti Devi BJP

54 Neeraj Puri BJP

55 Preetam Singh CONG

56 Baldev Baloria BJP

57 Inderjeet Kour CONG

58 Tirath Kour BJP

59 Ashok Singh IND

60 Rajni Bala CONG

61 Mohinder Kumar BJP

62 Rekha BJP

63 Kuldeep Singh BJP

64 Kapil Chib BJP

65 Anita Sharma IND

66 Tripta Devi BJP

67 Suraj Prkash BJP

68 Anil Kumar BJP

69 Gurmeet Kour BJP

70 Narinder Singh BJP        

71 Shama Akhtar IND

72 Rachpal Bhardwaj CONG

73 Youdhvir Singh IND

74 Sobat Ali IND                      

75 Ghar Singh Chib IND

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Prominent Winners

• Junaid Mattu, former NC spokesperson — Wins from three wards of the SMC
• Rajinder Singh, alias Bubby, brother of BJP MLA Lal Singh — Ward No. 2 (Kathua MC) 
• Vijay Sharma, president of the Hindu Ekta Manch — Ward No. 11 (Hiranagar MC)

Prominent Losers 

• Asifa Tariq Karra, wife of senior Congress leader Tariq Karra — Ward No. 31 (SMC)
• Manmohan Singh, Congress general secretary — Ward No.29 (JMC)
• Deepak Gupta, brother of senior BJP leader Kavinder Gupta — Ward No. 36 (JMC)