Amarnath Gami and Sanjay Saravagi

Hayaghat MLA and BJP district unit president Ama-rnath Gami on Sunday resigned from the post in protest against alleged non-cooperation by Town MLA Sanjay Saravagi in the election for the deputy mayor’s post.

Ajay Paswan and Gauri Paswan had been projected for the post of mayor in Darbhanga Municipal Corpor-ation, election for which was held on June 9. While Gauri was the mayor in the last term, Paswan was a former mayor.

Gami said despite most councillors being backed by the BJP, Badrujama Khan alias Boby Khan, who had the support of the JD(U), became the deputy mayor.

“It is true that that civic body elections are not held on party lines. But the reality is that the parties conduct meetings of their respective coordination committees to promote candidates. We had also convened a meeting of our coordination committee, but the Town MLA did not turn up saying the party candidate would win,” Gami said.

“As there was no meeting, two candidates, both BJP activists, fought the election. As a result, we lost the post of the deputy mayor despite having 30-32 BJP-supported councillors in the civic body,” Gami told The Telegraph.

The Darbhanga Municipal Corporation has 48 councillors.

“I kept the state party office posted about the growing discontent within the party from time to time, but nobody took any action. The councillors enjoying the BJP’s support wished to be honoured, but it was impossible because there was no coordination committee meeting. These councillors are fed up with the attitude of the party’s state headquarters,” Gami added.

Saravagi, on the other hand, said, “Despite having 22-23 BJP activists as councillors, we won the mayor’s post. As far as the post of deputy mayor is concerned, there was no candidate who enjoyed support from the BJP. We tried to defeat the RJD-supported candidate, Manoj Mandal, and promoted Boby Khan.”