Jammu, March 5
The six corporators belonging to the National Conference may tilt the scales in the tussle between the BJP and Congress-led ruling coalition for the post of Mayor of the Jammu Municipal Corporation scheduled to be held on Monday.

In the first corporation election, the BJP had won the Mayor’s post because of the support of the National Conference and on account of dissension in the Congress.

In tomorrow’s election, the National Conference has field its candidate, Mr Surinder Singh, for the Mayor’s post which indicates that it is not inclined to support the BJP. Sources said in case the six NC corporators voted for their party candidate, the Congress candidate, Mr Manmohan Chowdhry, would have an edge over the BJP’s Mr Kavinder Gupta, who had defeated the Congress candidate last year, because the Congress has 27 corporators against 26 of the BJP.

The Congress expects the support of two PDP corporators also.

However, the BJP president, Dr Nirmal Singh, said here on Sunday: “We are hopeful to get our candidate re-elected to the Mayor’s post.”

The BJP circles seem to bank on possible dissensions in the Congress camp because a number of MLAs belonging to the party are disenchanted with the Chief Minister, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, and these very legislators can influence the party corporators.

During the first election for the post of Mayor a year ago, senior Congress leaders had earned severe displeasure from the party President, Ms Sonia Gandhi, for their failure to secure support of the party corporators for the Congress candidate. At that stage, Mr Azad, who was the Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, had conveyed Ms Gandhi’s annoyance to the party leaders in Jammu.

The Monday’s election for the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor will be an acid test for the Chief Minister. His task has been made difficult after rebel Congress corporators filed their nominations for the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor.

The Congress has fielded Mr Manmohan Singh but Mr Narinder Singh, a rebel Congress corporator, too, has filed his nomination papers.

While the National Conference has fielded Mr Dharam Vir Singh for the Deputy Mayor’s post, the BJP has not entered into the fray for this post. The Congress has fielded Ms Rajni Bala and here again Mr Kulbushan Sharma, a Congress rebel, has entered the poll fray.

There are two Independent candidates in the fray — Mr Jaswant Singh Soodan for the Mayor’s post and Mr Hardeep Singh Mankotia for the post of Deputy Mayor.