Manali civic body president election postponed indefinitely

The election for the president of Manali Municipal Council (MC) has got entangled in technical complications and has been postponed indefinitely. After the no-confidence motion, brought in on September 9 by four councillors, was passed on September 25, the election for the post of the civic body chief was scheduled on October 24. However, as five of the seven councillors were not present to complete the quorum, the election was rescheduled for today, in which quorum was not necessary and president would have been appointed by a simple majority.

However, today Manoj Larje, Lalita and Naveen Tanwar filed nomination papers for the post of president. On the other hand, ousted president Chaman Kapoor and Naveen gave a complaint letter against Manoj to the Election Officer alleging that Manoj cannot contest the election for the post of president while currently holding the charge of vice-president.

It is worth mentioning that Manoj had previously submitted his resignation to Kullu Deputy Commissioner and even a no-confidence motion was also brought against him and three other councillors, but neither the resignation was accepted nor any decision taken on the no-confidence motion.

Taking this complaint as the basis, Election Officer-cum-Manali SDM Raman Kumar Sharma cancelled the poll and sent the matter to the Directorate of Urban Development in Shimla for further action.

According to information, out of seven councillors, four are on one side and three on the other. It is being speculated that Manoj Larje was sure to become the president, but the election for the post was not held due to non-clarity on the procedure.

When Manali MLA Bhuvneshwar Gaur also reached the election office the atmosphere got charged up. The local MLA has the right to vote in certain cases. However, the MLA left the office after a while.

Manoj alleged that the election was cancelled due to political pressure. Manoj said he had submitted his resignation to the DC and it was the administration’s job to act upon it. In Manali Municipal Council, five of the seven seats were won by the BJP supported candidates in January 2021. Three of them, along with Sunita of the Congress, ousted the civic body president last month.

Chaman Kapoor said he was ousted from the post of president due to internal factionalism in the BJP. He said this could prove fatal for the saffron party in Manali in the coming times. He said if the high command had intervened on time, this situation would not have arisen. He said development works in Manali were halted due to greed for power and provocation by some external elements.