BJP gets five seats, SP one in KMC working committee

Kanpur: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured five out of six vacant seats in the working committee of the Kanpur Municipal Corporation (KMC) through mutual consent on Tuesday, while the Samajwadi Party claimed the remaining seat.
The newly elected members include Akarsh Bajpai, Dhirendra Kumar, Pawan Kumar Pandey, Manju Pal, and Yashpal Singh from the BJP, and Faizan Rahman from the Samajwadi Party.With this outcome, the BJP now has 10 seats in the 12-member working committee, with the Samajwadi Party occupying the other two. The proceedings commenced in the morning around 11:45 am, with the mayor advocating for the selection of members through unanimous agreement. However, the corporators dissented, with some demanding an election. Amid heated deliberations, the house was adjourned for 40 minutes around noon. Upon reconvening the house at 1:30 pm, the mayor reiterated the call for consensus, but the corporators remained steadfast in their opposition. Consequently, the mayor declared that the vacant positions in the working committee would be determined by an election. As officials initiated preparations for the electoral process, the mayor successfully brokered an agreement among the corporators. Independent corporator Arvind Yadav withdrew his candidacy, paving the way for a consensual resolution, and the corporators subsequently elected the working committee members. During the nomination process, the Congress and Samajwadi Party engaged in a heated exchange. Samajwadi Party leader Javed Akhtar Guddu asserted that the remaining seat should be allocated to their party, while Congress leader Suhail Ahmad contended that it should be granted to his party.
In response to this situation, the mayor said since the Samajwadi Party and Congress were allies in the Lok Sabha, they should reach a compromise and select one member rather than challenging each other in this context. The one-year term of the previous working committee had concluded on June 30.
Earlier, six members of the working committee were chosen through a lottery system and removed from their positions. The ousted members included Pawan Gupta, Vikas Jaiswal, Anjali Dixit, Nirdesh Singh Chauhan, Ashumendra Pratap Singh and Santosh Sahu.