Cong bags Shimla MC for the fourth time

SHIMLA: The Congress has retained its hold over the Shimla municipal corporation for the fourth consecutive time with a twothirds majority, winning 16 out of 24 seats in the elections held on April 27.
In the counting of votes held on Monday, the ruling BJP could manage to win only six seats.
The remaining two seats were shared by an independent, a Congress rebel from ward no 22, and the Him Loktantric Morcha, a conglomerate of nine parties whose candidate won from ward no 6.The Himachal Vikas Congress (HVC) of former Union telecom minister Sukh Ram drew a blank.
Maintaining the trend set in the assembly elections of the neighbouring states of Uttaranchal and Punjab and corporation elections in Delhi, the Congress candidates won by convincing margins in the Shimla municipal corporation elections, polling for which was held on April 27. Had there not been the rebel Congress candidates in fray, the party would perhaps have fared much better.
The counting, which was done in two phases, started at eight in the morning and from the very onset the Congress candidates took an early lead. In the first phase, in which counting for 12 wards was taken up, the Congress won eight and the BJP four seats, while in the second phase the Congress won another eight, the BJP two, independent one and Him Loktantric Morcha one.
Amongst the prominent losers were the sitting mayor Jenny Prem and former mayor Manoj Kumar, while the sitting deputy mayor Shashi Shekhar won, despite having to shift wards, as his earlier ward Nabha was reserved for scheduled caste candidates this time.
The BJP which, being in power in the state, was hoping to do much better had to be content with a mere six seats, as 18 of its candidates lost.The saving grace for it was that it improved upon its 1997 election performance when it had won just two seats in the then 25-member corporation.
Interestingly, most of the independent, HVC and Him Loktantric Morcha candidates in the fray forfeited their deposits.
There were a total of 119 candidates contesting from the 24 wards.
Meanwhile, HPCC chief Vidya Stokes on Monday accused the Shimla deputy commissioner, who was also the returning officer for the elections, of foul play by not accepting a petition for recounting of votes in ward no 18, where the Congress candidate Rajinder Verma lost by a mere 20 votes. “Verma and the agent observed that the votes clearly polled in favour of the Congress candidate were declared invalid.The whole process of counting being wrong, illegal and arbitrary could only be rectified by ordering a recounting of votes.The BJP candidate was declared elected in spite of a written objection,� she added.