BJP welcomes 'defector' councillors
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, September 04 2013:
The State unit Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today extended warm welcome to eight councillors of Ningthoukhong Municipal Council.
Of the eight, four belong to the Congress and the others elected to the Council as independent members.
Speaking at the welcoming ceremony of the defector councillors at the BJP Manipur Pradesh office here today, state unit president Th Chaoba alleged that favouritism by the Congress leaderships in settling a dispute within the party councillors in Ningthoukhong Municipal Council (NMC) has resulting in the four Congress councillors to join the BJP.
Out of the 14 wards in NMC, six were elected on Congress tickets while eight of the wards had independents representatives, said Th Chaoba adding that the Congress managed to grab the chairperson's post due to support extended by four independent councillors.
Due to certain dispute four of the Congress councillors moved a no confidence motion against the Chairperson on January 7, 2013 which was duly rejected on the ground that the motion lacked the requisite mandate (quorum), noted the State BJP chief who further informed that consequent to the directive from Commissioner (Mahud) on February 22 the election officer concerned issued a notification the next day convening a meeting on March 5 .
However, the district's Deputy Commissioner overruled the March 5 meeting schedule on the ground that he was not consulted on the matter, Chaoba maintained while construing that such delaying tactics, apparently at the behest of Congress leaders, prompted the four Congress councillors and four independents to join the BJP.
Welcoming the eight councillors, Chaoba introduced the Congress councillors as RK Bimola Devi (Ward No 7), Kh Sunolata Devi (WN 7), L Dilipkumar Singh (WN 12) and L Binodchandra Singh (WN 14) and the independent councillors as M Rajen (WN 3), A Tombi Singh (WN 1), N Premila Devi (WN 6) and I Tomba Singh (WN 4) .