Srinagar: Junaid Azim Mattoo was on Tuesday elected the Mayor of Srinagar Municipal Corporation.

Mattoo was a Mayoral candidate of Sajad Lone’s People’s Conference which was supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party. He defeated Congress’s Bashir Hajam.

They said that Junaid won 40 votes while Congress’s Hajam bagged 26 votes. 4 votes declared invalid.

Hailing from uptown Srinagar, Matto came into politics after 2010 summer uprising and joined Sajad’s Peoples Conference as its spokesperson. He deserted the PC and joined National Conference and was again appointed spokesperson.

However, just before the municipal elections, Matto deserted the NC and fought the municipal elections independently. He won from Solina in Srinagar and soon got support of his former chairman Sajjad Lone.

Governor Satya Pal Malik had before the elections said in an interview that Srinagar city would get a foreign educated mayor referring to Mattoo. Matto has studied in the United States.