NEPANAGAR (BURHANPUR): Nine councillors of the Bharatiya Janata Party from Nepanagar municipal council have demanded action against three councillors who were involved in the cross-voting and as a result of that, BJP lost the council president election.
Councillors threatened that they will table mass resignation if no action is taken against these three councillors.
Earlier, on October 15 BJP candidate Meena Rajesh Chauhan lost to Congress candidate Bharti Vinod Patil by six votes even after both parties have the same number of councillors.
In the council, which has a total of 24 wards, Congress won 12 wards, while BJP won 10 and two were won by the independent candidates. Later, independent candidates extended their support to the BJP as a result of that, the party revoked their suspension and re-inducted them into the party.
Meanwhile, during the president election, three BJP councillors gave votes in favour of Congress candidates as a result of which Bharti Patil got 15 votes, while Meena Chauhan got nine votes.
Some of the councillors claimed that former council vice-president Vaishali Patil of BJP voted for Congress candidate Bharti Patil as she is her younger sister-in-law.
Party councillors also raised questions over the council vice-president and BJP councillor Sarla Praveen Katkar saying that her unopposed elections as the vice-president raised many questions.
Party councillors did not mention the name of the third councillor in the letter which was forwarded to the BJP district president Manoj Ladhwe.
Meanwhile, Vaishali Patil rubbished all the allegations of cross-voting levelled at her saying though Bharti Patil is her elder sister-in-law, she never went against the party and did not vote in favour of Bharti.
I’m completely devoted to the party and had no clue about who are the three councillors who are involved in cross-voting.
On the other hand, Sarla Katkar who contested as an independent candidate and later joined BJP said that she was included in the party on the same day. She didn't even get a chance to talk to any councillor. So how could she do cross-voting?
On the other hand, BJP district president Manoj Ladwe says that the complaint of the councillors has been sent to the organisation.
