As BJP, Congress stake claim for Mayor Post, Independents say “won’t merge with any party”

Srinagar, Oct 29 : As mainstream parties including Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress and Peoples Conference (PC) claimed the support of independent candidates for Mayor Post in Srinagar, the independent councilors who emerged as winners in the recently held Urban Local Bodies (ULB) polls from Srinagar district on Monday refused to support any party for the Mayor Post of Srinagar.
After taking oath today as councilors in Banquet hall here, the independent candidates while talking to Kashmir News Service that they will not merge with any party especially with BJP, but will stake claims for Srinagar’ Mayor Post.
“We have a good number of like-minded councilors who are willing to extend their support to independents only,” an independent councilor, Sheikh Imran who won from Nishat ward no. 2 told KNS, adding that aligning with other parties will be tantamount to “digging ou own graves”.
“We will not support any party especially BJP but if there is any party who want to work on Common Minimum programme for the development of Srinagar then we welcome that,” he said, adding that the independent councilors will stake claim for mayor post soon and the number of councilors they have will be made public on the floor of the house at appropriate time.
The independent councilors also said that whosoever will become Mayor but the difficulties people are facing at present for getting Date of Birth Certificates (DoB) and other things must end.
Earlier, the BJP’s state president Ravinder Raina had made a similar claim. “This time, lotus will not only bloom in Jammu but in Kashmir as well,” Raina had told reporters in Jammu. ”BJP will have its Mayors in both capital cities.”
The Congress also sounded positive about bagging the post of Mayor in Srinagar. The party has fielded candidates in 66 of the 74 wards in Srinagar Municipal Corporation.