All 20 mayoral candidates of the ruling DMK and its ally Congress candidate, an autorickshaw driver, were on Friday elected in an indirect election to the top posts in municipal bodies in Tamil Nadu and took charge.
Indirect elections to elect presidents of municipalities and nagar panchayats, however, saw tussle and high drama in many areas, with members of the DMK ward, in violation of party decrees, in a string of local bodies with coalition parties. candidates defeated.
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This includes the posts allotted by the DMK in civic bodies to elected representatives of allies, including the CPI (M) and Viduthalai Chiruthigal Katchi (VCK).
After a foul cry by allies of the angry ruling party, DMK President and Chief Minister MK Stalin expressed deep regret to the allies and directed his party’s ward members to immediately resign their posts to the candidates of the coalition parties. Stalin warned them that if they did not leave, they would be expelled from the primary membership of the party.
The DMK chief asked his party men to resign from such posts earmarked for allies and meet them later.
He directed the district secretaries and in-charge officers to take prompt action in this regard. Stalin rebuked such partymen for tarnishing the name of DMK by snatching seats allotted to allies.
Following Stalin’s action, allies thanked him greatly and said it was a historic step that would further increase their trust in him and promote goodwill.
Following a strong message from the party chief, the DMK apparatus swung into action and suspended its Poonamallee Municipal Secretary M Ravikumar for violating party discipline. It also relieved senior DMK leader N Suresh Rajan from the post of Kanyakumari East Party district secretary.
I am sure that the spirit of camaraderie will never waver.
Those who won by contesting the seats allotted to comrades should resign immediately!
Failure to do so will result in the dismissal of the original member of the organization. (2/3)
— mkstalin (@mkstalin) 4 March 2022
After a tough fight between the DMK and the DMK, he was replaced by R Mahesh, who was elected as the Mayor of Nagercoil Corporation. BJP,
The scenario in which party men acted against official candidates was also seen in parties including AIADMK, which expelled six of its workers in Villupuram district. It also sacked 8 of its office-bearers from the Salem Rural Party district for working in support of DMK candidates.
Earlier in the day ruling party’s candidate Priya Rajan Elected unopposed and took over as the Mayor of Chennai In the presence of state ministers Ma Subramaniam, a former mayor and PK Shekhar Babu.
28 year old female The first Dalit person to become the Mayor of the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC). A postgraduate in commerce, she is also the youngest person to hold office as the Mayor of Chennai.
He was administered the oath of office by Principal Secretary and GCC Commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi at Ripon Bhawan. Sekar Babu and Subramaniam presented mace to Priya, the third woman mayor of Chennai and 49th mayor of the corporation.
All the 200 councilors elected to the GCC in the recent urban civic polls were administered oath on March 2.
In Kumbakonam in Thanjavur district, Congress candidate K Saravanan, an autorickshaw driver, was elected mayor and assumed office. He is the first mayor of Kumbakonam Corporation.
The civic polls were held in February this year, after the government upgraded the Kumbakonam municipality to a municipal corporation in December 2021. Saravanan was presented with a scepter by a senior officer.
In Madurai, DMK’s Indrani was elected mayor of the temple city and took charge in the presence of Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan and officials.
VCK chief Thol Thirumavalavan in a tweet had urged DMK president and Chief Minister Stalin to protect the ‘coalition dharma’, directing DMK candidates who had asked for their resignations in local bodies earmarked for allies .
The CPI(M) had said that the victory of its candidates and other allies was snatched away by the ward members of the ruling party. The Marxist party, which stated that all the posts of municipal and nagar panchayat presidents allotted to it, had been defeated, urged top DMK officials to fulfill the duty of defending the principles governing a coalition. .
The VCK leader also thanked Stalin for the successful election of his party’s candidates in Jayamkondam Municipality and Pennadam Nagar Panchayat.
Minister Shekhar Babu tweeted that Rajan’s election as the Mayor of Chennai is the result of Chief Minister MK Stalin’s tireless work for the welfare of the people in the last nine months. He said that people voted for the DMK in the local body elections so that good governance could be ensured in the municipal bodies as well.