M A I N   N E W S

Shimla Mayor, 15 others quit Cong
From S. P. Sharma
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Sept 20 — The mayor and 15 other councillors of the Congress-controlled Shimla Municipal Corporation resigned from the party today to protest against the alleged rigging of the organisational elections in Himachal Pradesh by the anti-Virbhadra Singh group.

These councillors, led by the mayor, Mrs Jenny Prem, submitted their resignations to the CLP leader, Mr Virbhadra Singh.

They are learnt to have alleged that the election of the Shimla (urban) were rigged and Mr Anand Sharma, a spokesman of the AICC, was declared elected. No election took place in the PCC office where it was scheduled to be held.

These councillors have reportedly complained in their resignation letters that they were in the PCC office and no election was held there. The district returning officer and the assistant returning officer had declared the results from elsewhere, they alleged.

They have alleged that it was for the first time in the history of the party that malpractices were being allowed in the organisational elections. Candidates of one particular faction were declared elected without holding the election.

It is learnt that the councillors have also faxed copies of their resignation letters to other senior leaders of the party.

The Congress has 22 councillors in the 25-member Shimla Municipal Corporation.

Seventeen MLAs have already complained to Mrs Sonia Gandhi about the alleged rigging.