For the third time in two years, Somya Gurjar took over because the mayor of Jaipur Higher Municipal Company on Saturday, nearly two months after the Ashok Gehlot-led state authorities had dismissed the BJP councillor and barred her from contesting elections for six years after its investigation discovered her responsible in an assault case from June 2021.
After the dismissal, an election for the brand new mayor was additionally scheduled. Halfway by way of the counting of the votes on November 10, the Rajasthan Excessive Courtroom stayed the method saying the state authorities didn’t give Gurjar a chance to current her case.
Therefore, as she took cost as soon as once more on November 12, Gurjar was handed a show-cause discover by the state authorities and requested to reply by November 18.
The most recent developments have their origin in June 2021, when over six months into Gurjar’s tenure, it got here to mild that three councillors had allegedly assaulted the civic physique’s commissioner Yagya Mitra Singhdeo within the mayor’s presence. On the time, Singhdeo and Gurjar had been concerned in a dispute over different preparations for rubbish assortment as employees of BVG – an organization answerable for waste administration and disposal – had been on strike.
The state authorities went on to droop Gurjar and order a judicial investigation. A discover asserting her “speedy suspension” learn, “Since Dr Somya Gurjar is Mayor, JMC Higher, and is a councillor from ward 87, and the fees towards her are critical, there may be full risk of the judicial investigation being influenced if she continues to be the mayor.”
Whereas the state BJP led by Satish Poonia protested towards the choice, the Congress authorities leveraged variations amongst BJP councillors and introduced BJP councillor and former mayor Sheel Dhabhai because the interim mayor of JMC Higher. Some BJP leaders led by Poonia protested exterior the social gathering’s state workplace towards Gurjar’s removing whilst Dhabhai was taking cost.
In the meantime, Gurjar alleged that the state authorities didn’t enable her to current her case and moved the Excessive Courtroom. She then approached the Supreme Courtroom, which, in February, stayed her suspension order until the conclusion of the judicial investigation.
On September 27, the federal government mentioned that the judicial investigation into the June 2021 incident discovered her in violation of sure sections of the Rajasthan Municipal Act, 2009, and dismissed her from the mayoral publish and debarred her from contesting elections for six years. The dismissal prompted Gurjar to knock on the doorways of the court docket as soon as once more.
Even because the matter was being heard in court docket, the state authorities initiated recent elections. The BJP’s mayoral candidate Rashmi Saini was assured, whereas the Congress’ Hema Singhania hoped to spring a shock. Main as much as the elections, councillors belonging to each events had been huddled up in resorts for a few week to stop poaching.
However on election day final week, a Excessive Courtroom Bench, quashing the September 27 order for suspension, requested the federal government to challenge a recent present trigger discover to Gurjar. The court docket mentioned, “After affording the petitioner an affordable alternative of a private listening to, the respondents could go a recent reasoned order.” This resulted within the present trigger discover to her on November 12.
However with the state authorities’s intentions relating to Gurjar amply clear, it’s anticipated that the federal government could once more take away her because the Mayor, whereas she could method the courts over her dismissal; the problem has seemingly become a ‘status’ challenge for the federal government. Gurjar has managed to return to the chair many times. The seat itself assumes significance as she is the primary mayor of the newly carved Jaipur Higher Municipal Company, which covers the seat of energy within the state capital.
However Gurjar appears unperturbed. She and her husband Rajaram Gurjar aren’t any strangers to controversies.
In 2016, when she was a member of the Rajasthan State Fee for Ladies she clicked a selfie with a rape sufferer. She was requested to resign after the Nationwide Fee for Ladies reprimanded her and chairperson Suman Sharma, who was additionally within the image, for an “insensitive act”.
Rajaram is likely one of the most important accused in an FIR filed in reference to the Karauli communal violence in April. Earlier, in June 2021, a video surfaced through which an individual alleged to be Rajaram was seen asking for a Rs 20-crore fee from a consultant of the BVG to clear the agency’s excellent payments value Rs 276 crore.