After a decade, civic body’s finance body to witness polls

With six councillors filing their nominations for five seats on Friday, the Municipal Corporation's Finance and Contract Committee (F&CC) is set to witness elections after almost a decade. With Friday being the last date for filing nominations, two councillors each of the Congress and BJP submitted their papers while the BSP fielded a candidate and nominated councillor Sat Paul Bansal rounded off the poll list.

Over the past decade, the members of the F&CC have been unanimous elected. The last time polls were held for the committee was in 2002. With elections a near certainty this time, hectic lobbying has already begun. The Congress has fielded councillors Mukesh Bassi and Darshan Kumar Garg after a decision was taken on their names at a party meeting on Thursday. Bassi had been a contender for Mayor's post while Garg had served as the senior deputy mayor last year.

From the BJP, councillors Arun Sood and Davesh Moudgil filed nominations with Sood having contested for the Mayor post during polls on January1. Among the nominated councillors, Sat Paul Bansal has been chosen to once again file nominations. He was a member of the F&CC in the last tenure as well. While the nominated councillors had been demanding more representation in the F&CC this time, they finally decided to field just one candidate. The BSP held a meeting with the nominated councillors.

To get elected to the F&CC, a candidate requires at least 6 votes. The Congress has 13 votes in the 36 member house. The BJP-SAD alliance, meanwhile, has 11 councillors while the BSP has two councillors in the House. Apart from one independent councillor, there are nine nominated councillors.

The system of preferential voting is followed in the F&CC elections. In case of a tie, the second preference votes would be counted. With every vote to count, getting more first preference votes in their favour would be a priority for the candidates.

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