Jammu: As the Councillor of the Jammu Municipal Corporation elected their new Mayor, in a controversial election on Friday, the height of his chair emerged an issue on the day one.
BJP Councillor from New Plot Rajinder Sharma won the election for Mayor of Jammu in a visibly one-sided election as he obtained 57 of the 59 votes polled. In the 75-member House, the BJP has 43 members, but it also has backing of Independent Councillors.
Soon after being declared elected Mayor, the New Plot Councillor Rajinder Sharma pointed out to the chair which was of the same size as that of the Deputy Mayor and the Commissioner of the Municipal Corporation. He immediately asked for high rise chair and passed instructions that his chair in common meetings should be higher in size than the chairs of Deputy Mayor and the Commissioner
During the election process there were three chairs of equal size which were to be occupied by the newly elected Mayor, Deputy Mayor and the Commissioner of the Municipal Corporation. However, while occupying seat, Rajinder Sharma insisted on replacing his chair with a bigger and higher chair, unique to the other two.
“Earlier, there was never a precedent of reserving bigger chair or different chairs for the common meetings involving Mayor, Deputy Mayor and the Commissioner”, said an official of the JMC. Chander Mohan Sharma, the outgoing Mayor, never made the height of chair an issue.
An official said, Mayor has a defined protocol but his insistence for a higher chair in the day of election of ceremonial meetings of thanksgiving and introduction was bit too early and little awkward for the JMC officials.
The fresh elections were necessitated after the resignation of Chander Mohan Sharma and Purnima Sharma of BJP who have moved to the party for organisational work.
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