City's cleanliness, development my priority

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)'s Jatinder Singh Moti Bhatia assumed charge as the Amritsar mayor on Tuesday amid protests by Congress councillors.

- Surjit Singh

AMRITSAR:

The party had named Bhatia as the mayor, Priyanka Sharma as the senior deputy mayor and Aneeta Rani as the deputy mayor on Monday even as the Congress cried foul and alleged that no voting was held.

The Congress had emerged the single-largest party in the House, winning 40 out of 85 seats in the municipal elections in December.

It also had the support of one Independent councillor, taking its tally in the House to 41.

The AAP, which has 24 councillors, had the additional support of seven of its MLAs who enjoy voting rights as ex officio members of the House.

Besides, the AAP also managed to secure the support of seven out of the eight independent councillors, while two of the nine BJP councillors also extended support to it. With this, AAP claimed to have increased its tally in the House to 40.

On Tuesday, Congress' rank and file gathered at Bhandari bridge and staged a dharna, claiming the AAP government had misused the state machinery to bag the top three posts in the House, and said they will move the high court.

The Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) also submitted a memorandum to the governor, raising concerns over the "subversion of democratic process" in the mayoral elections.