After having failed to arrive at a consensus on the name of leader of Opposition in the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) for some time, the Congress on Saturday elected Mohamed Sagheer for the coveted post. Sagheer, who retained the post, was challenged by Abdul Shafiq, who romped by garnering 15 of the total 26 votes, defeating his rival by a margin of four votes.
Sagheer’s candidature was backed by the camp of former Union Minister and former State Congress president Suresh Pachouri, while Shafiq was enjoying the backing of Congress general secretary and former Chief Minister Digvijay Singh group.
Those leading the rival party groups on the ground were former MPCC spokesman Arif Masood, former BMC chairman Kailash Mishra and Bhopal District Congress Committee president PC Sharma from Pachouri camp while the Singh camp was led by former mayor Sunil Sood, former MPCC joint secretary Nasir Islam and Bhopal North MlA Arif Aqueel’s younger brother Amir Aqueel.
Election for the opposition leader in the BMC was necessitated as the senior party leaders failed to arrive at a consensus after talks at every level. Pachouri camp relied on Sagheer and fielded him from its side his nomination was proposed by two Corporators including Shawar Mansuri and Raeesa Malik while the Singh camp imposed faith in Shafiq whose nomination was proposed by Ravi Verma.
Voting for the leader of opposition that was held in the state Congress office started at about 1 pm lasted for about an hour and the result came in next one hour. Though after the result the state Congress leadership denied of any election and said that Sagheer has been elected by consensus.
State Congress president Arun Yadav in whose presence the whole process carried out at the end of the day claimed that no election was held and that Sagheer has been named unanimously for the post.