Jammu: Amid a boycott by Congress councillors, the BJP’s Rajinder Sharma was on Friday elected the Mayor of the Jammu Municipal Corporation.
A JMC official said 59 of the 73 votes were polled.
As 14 Congress councillors boycotted the election, 57 votes went for the BJP and one to the Congress. One vote was declared invalid.
Rajinder Sharma was declared the new Mayor.
Earlier, Congress corporators staged a protest against the open ballot in the electoral process.
Party leader Dwarka Chowdhary alleged that the BJP was holding elections through the open ballot for the first time because it was scared of losing.
“The elections of Mayor and Deputy Mayor earlier were held through secret ballot and BJP won both the posts. Then, why the same exercise was not repeated? he asked.
The posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor fell vacant last month after Chander Mohan Gupta and Purnima Sharma resigned reportedly on the directions of the BJP leadership.
