Jammu, Oct 15: Independent candidates of Jammu Municipal Corporation have decided to contest elections for the post of mayor and deputy mayor on October 21.

A meeting of Independent Corporators of Jammu Municipal Corporation was held under the chairmanship of Ch Manmohan Singh, former Mayor.

“In the meeting, the Independent Corporators decided to contest elections for the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Jammu Municipal Corporations,” the officials said.

Independent Corporators have nominated Anu Bali, Corporator Ward 24 as Mayor candidate while Amit Gupta Corporator Ward 19 was nominated for the post of Dy Mayor.

Ch Manmohan Singh informed that both the candidates will file their nomination papers for the posts of Mayor and Dy Mayor on October 17.

He said that this is the same group of corporators that had nominated late Vijay Choudhary, Corporator Ward 42 as Mayor candidate in 2018 and she bagged 31 votes at that time.

Ch Manmohan Singh extended wholehearted support to the newly selected candidates for the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor.

Earlier, after the acceptance of the resignation of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC), the election notification was issued.

Nominations can be filed on October 17 for the elections to be held on October 21.

The mayor and deputy mayor from BJP had assumed office in 2018 after the BJP won 43 of the 75 wards in the Jammu Municipal Corporation. Chandra Mohan Gupta was elected as Mayor while Advocate Purnima Sharma was elected as Deputy Mayor. Gupta got 45 votes out of 75, while his rival independent corporator Vijay Choudhary got 31 votes. On the other hand, Deputy Mayor Purnima Sharma took 46 votes defeating rival Congress candidate Charanjit Kaur.kno