UNANIMOUS: Davinder Jaggi of Congress wins post of Mayor in MC Dharamshala

BJP’s Onkar Nehria wins post of Deputy Mayor Dharamshala, October 8, 2018: The suspense for the Mayor seat of Dharamshala MC, was over today when the previous Deputy Mayor, Davinder Jaggi , a Congress nominee elevated to the Mayor’s seat, unopposed as all the 17 elected corporation ward members decided to conduct elections on non-party symbols. Rajni, a Congress member from the Khaniara ward, was the outgoing the first Mayor of just two and a half years old Dharamshala MC. She elected for the MC Dharamshala Mayor’s post on 9th April 2016. She was too elected unopposed for this post, which was then reserved for an SC candidate by the state government through a notification for 2 and a half year only. The Deputy Mayor post then went to Davinder Jaggi, another Congress councillor from the Shyam Nagar ward. This time the Mayor post was reserved for ST candidate for next 30 months but due to low ST population it was kept open. Interestingly, despite the fact that the BJP had only three of the 17 elected members in the municipal corporation, one of its members, Onkar Nehria, filed nomination for the post of Deputy Mayor. But as it was decided to have elections without party symbols Nehria elected as Deputy Mayor defeating Swarna by 3 votes. It is said that as the BJP has already faced defeat in Zila Parishad elections held last month, it was decided by the high command of the party to settle out for a mutual arrangements in the MC Mayor and Deputy Mayor elections, as battle was very tough for BJP because Congress has majority of Councillors in this urban body . There are 17 wards in the corporation and out of them 14 were represented by Congress members and only 3 by BJP leaders. The Deputy Mayor post was fought by Onkar Nehria and Swarna. Only 15 members voted, two remain abstain. Nehria got 9 and Swarna 6 votes. Dharamshala MC had 17 wards, 14 elected members are of congress party while only 3 are of BJP, Neheria is one of them. Recently the Jai Ram government nominated 5 new members to raise its strength of BJP in MC to 8 . But these 5 new members don’t have voting right in today’s elections. The elections were conducted today observation of Director Urban Development Himachal. Former Urban Development Minister and General secretary Congress Sudhir Sharma had reached the town on Saturday evening and various leaders from the Corporation have met him on Sunday and made the road map for this election. Dharamshala constituency is being represented by Kishan Kapoor, the sitting cabinet minister in the BJP government. A recent win in the Zila Parishad elections has already boosted the morale of Congress leaders in Kangra district. Now, Congress had its new mayor of Dharamshala Corporation , it would silence the critics of the Sudhir Sharma who was recently appointed as the joint secretary of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) and was given the responsibility of Jammu and Kashmir urban body elections. Results of this election would also impact the upcoming parliamentary elections. After the results Sudhir Sharma said, “In MC there is no scope of party politics, both Mayor and Deputy Mayor shall work together for the development of the city.” Davinder Jaggi said, “All of us shall work together to speed up the development projects of the city.” Onkar Nehria said, “I am thankful to the members of the House to show faith in me.”