Junaid Mattu all set to make a comeback as Srinagar Mayor; claims to have sufficient councillor support

Srinagar: In a politically charged environment of Srinagar Municipal Corporation, the word is abuzz – Junaid Mattu is all set to be re-elected as the Mayor of Srinagar In his second innings. He says, has the confirmed support of 45 Councilors.

On June 16 last month, Mattu was ousted from his Mayorship amidst plenty of allegations on Corruption. Mattu, whose role as City Father was widely hailed in managing the Pandemic – Leading from the front and even taking a lead in imposing the valley wide Lockdown at the onset of the Pandemic.

From accusations of Chemical scam to illegal buildings, all was said but nothing deterred Mattu until a No Confidence motion was initiated against him by the Bharitiya Janta Party (BJP). Then the National Conference (NC) joined hands with the BJP to remove Mattu. NC’s Salman Ali Sagar, son of Senior NC leader Ali Mohammad Sagar, who is believed to be leading the NC – BJP alliance en passant managed to get his incarcerated father released from the jail who was arrested post abrogation of Art. 370 & 35-A last year in August in the state of Jammu & Kashmir (erstwhile).

Mattu’s incumbency as a Mayor was broadly appreciated by Srinagarites. The otherwise defunct SMC went through a massive make-over. By the time Mattu was removed, the Corporation was fully equipped and upgraded to withstand and fight the on-going Pandemic or any other natural disaster for future. The city streets, lanes and roads were lit-up, the cleanliness in Srinagar could not go unnoticed and Srinagar after more than two decades was not at the pit bottom of the list of cleanliness in the Country.

The No Confidence Motion was criticised by people considering that the SMC was setting an example for the entire country on Covid management. “While everything else could wait, the entire momentum was halted for pure political motives.” said an officer of the SMC on condition of Anonymity.

While speaking in an interview to a News Channel, Mattu challenged those who were behind running an obnoxious Social Media campaign against him targeting him and his family through proxy accounts, to Prove even one single allegation against him on corruption. He also went on record to say that if embezzlement of one single penny is proven, as alleged, he will quit politics.

Upon enquiring we found out that no enquiry or investigation is going on since none of the allegations merit an enquiry.

*Sheikh Imran will be contesting against Mattu in the upcoming Mayor elections*

Those allegations were dampened when Commissioner SMC, Mr Gazanfar Ali (KAS) announced that all these allegations are fake and SMC has spent only 45 lakhs in its COVID efforts till now.
The commissioner in a rather confident and unyielding manner to News Channels refuted all allegations of corruption and stated, “not a single rupee has been spent in an unethical or unapproved manner. Every purchase has been done transparently and the entire SMC staff has worked extremely hard putting their own lives in Danger and that no one should demoralise them for their personal gains.”

He went on to throw a similar challenge to the ones who were making wild allegations to prove, otherwise they should stop this mud slinging and accusations.

Mattu who is a 35 year Old, young politician and the Chief Spokesperson of Sajad Lone led Peoples Conference is set to make a come and play his second innings at City Mayor since he enjoys the support of 45 Councillors and is *ready to prove his numbers in a floor test scheduled on 16th July 2020*