A scuffle broke out on the premises of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation(SMC) office on Monday in which Deputy Mayor Imran Kehwa was injured and rushed to the hospital.
Sources said that the recently elected corporators abused each other and exchanged blows with each other and one of the councillors threw a water bottle and saucers at the Deputy Mayor.
A video of the councillors meeting in which they can be seen engaged in a heated debate has gone viral on social media. In the video, J&K Police personnel can be seen as bystanders as the fight is going on.
There were also reports of the Deputy Mayor accusing some councillors of carrying out BJP-RSS agenda. The police have registered a case.
Internal politics trumps work at Srinagar Municipal Corporation?
There is already a rift between Srinagar Mayor Junaid Mattu of Peoples Conference and Deputy Mayor Imran Kehwa of Congress which has turned SMC into a political battleground.
Recently, the Deputy Mayor had supported a woman counsellor who accused the Mayor of sexually harassing her. Imran Kehwa also alleged that Junaid is being backed by BJP and RSS and is influencing the transfer orders of senior bureaucrats.
Mattu, in return, charged Imran of looting the public banks and resorting to corruption.
"All the councillors and SMC employees are by my side. I don't know who has elected his Deputy Mayor. He wants to use public money for his own consumption which I will not let him do," the Mayor had recently stated.
The urban local body polls, which were held in October last year, were boycotted by regional mainstream parties such as National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party. However, Sajad Lone's Peoples Conference, BJP and Congress fought the election although the voter turnout was a dismal 3.4 per cent. Junaid was polled 40 out of 70 votes in the SMC elections whereas Imran bagged 34 votes.
Watch the corporators fighting in SMC office here:
Corporators exchanged blows with each other at @smc_srinagar (Srinagar Municipal Corporation) Deputy Mayor SMC @imrankehwah (Sheikh Imran) injured, Police called in to maintain law/order .. @Khabarfast .@KhabarfastTV pic.twitter.com/OhMnHjHQNc
— javid parray (@Javidparray10) January 21, 2019
