BJP's Kavinder new Mayor, NC's Dharamvir retains chair as deputy

Jammu, Mar 5 (UNI) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Kavinder Gupta today defeated his Congress opponent in a straight contest to become the new Mayor for the second time while the National Conference (NC) candidate Dharamvir Singh Jamwal retained his chair as Deputy Mayor of Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC).

In the close ballot election to the post of Mayor and Deputy Mayor in the 71-member JMC, which was held in the conference room of the corporation this morning, Mr Gupta emerged as the winner with 37 votes in his favour as his rival Congress candidate Manmohan Singh Pinka got only 34 votes.

Out of 71 votes, Dharamvir Singh Jamwal won the seat by 10 votes as he secured 40 votes to retain his post whereas independent candidate Jaswant Singh Soodan could manage 30 votes. However, BJP candidate Usha Choudhary, who was the third candidate in the race for the post of Deputy Mayor, withdrew from the contest.

The Congress has the maximum 27 number of corporators in the JMC followed by the BJP with 25, National Conference 6, PDP 2, Shiv Sena 1, BSP 1 and independent 9.

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