Mattu Removed as Srinagar Mayor After Losing No Confidence Motion

Mattu lost the no confidence motion 42-70 councillors of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) on Tuesday.

Srinagar Mayor Junaid Azim Mattu was defeated on Tuesday as the no confidence motion against him was supported by 42 votes among the 70 councillors of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC).

(Photo: The Quint)

Junaid Azim Mattu was on Tuesday, 16 June removed as the mayor of Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) mayor after reportedly losing a no-confidence motion moved against him 42-70.

In a series of tweets following his defeat, Mattu alleged that the proceedings were “BJP-engineered, orchestrated and backed”.

Deputy Mayor Pervez Qadri had called a special session of SMC’s General Council at the Banquet Hall at 11:00 am on Tuesday for putting to test councillor Waheed Dar’s no-confidence motion against the Mayor Junaid Mattu.

IANS reported that councillors belonging to National Conference (NC) and some independents also voted against Mattu. NC vice president and former CM Omar Abdullah had earlier reportedly said that NC would not along with BJP in the voting process against Mattu.

The dissidents against Mattu were led by former SMC Deputy Mayor, Sheikh Imran. PTI reported that a series of meetings were held at his residence.

Mattu had sought dismissal of the no-trust motion on the grounds that an identical motion against him had failed on 26 December 2019 as well as citing social distancing guidelines. However, it was in vain as alternate arrangements were made for the trust vote.

Congress with 17 councillors had also issued a whip asking members not to participate in the no-confidence proceedings.

(With inputs from IANS and PTI)