Ahmedgarh gets MC president after 18 months

Having remained without a regular chief for over 18 months, Vikas Krishan Sharma of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was unanimously elected president of the Ahmedgarh Municipal Council today.

The election process for the post of vice-president, however, was cancelled on technical grounds. Ahmedgarh SDM Gurmit Bansal said a meeting was called for filling posts of MC president and vice-president in compliance of orders received from Malerkotla DC Dr Pallavi.

“As only one name was proposed and seconded for the post of president, Vikas Sharma was declared elected unanimously,” said Bansal, maintaining that election for the post of vice-president was cancelled on technical grounds.

Vikas Tandon, who was unanimously elected chief of the council during the Congress regime with the support of then MLA Surjit Singh Dhiman, was dethroned from the office after a no-confidence motion on February 16, 2023.

Around 30 months after the constitution of the AAP government, residents have now seen a ray of hope for resumption of development works in the town as Sharma would now be able to implement development projects under the guidance of Amargarh legislator Jaswant Singh Gajjanmajra, who is also an associate member of the council.

The factionalism among councillors owing allegiance to various parties, including the ruling party, Congress and the SAD, resulted in a situation wherein the council waited for 18 months to get a regular president. Though the administration had called a meeting for the election of president and vice-president earlier, the same had been staggered due to the unavailability of a convener. The arrest of council’s associate member and legislator Jaswant Singh Gajjanmajra by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) around ten nine months ago had also disrupted the pace of development works in the town.

Following a series of meetings between MLA’s wife Dr Parminder Kaur and son Rubal Gajjanmajra, and various factions of councillors, a consensus on the candidature of Vikas Krishan Sharma was arrived today morning.