The Hindu : Kerala News : Political imbroglio at Chemnad panchayat

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 15, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Political imbroglio at Chemnad panchayat

By K.P. Pushparaj

KASARAGOD, SEPT. 14. The complexity of the numbers game often plays spoilsport when the ruling and Opposition fronts have the same numbers in any local body. And it was such a political imbroglio that occurred at Chemnad grama panchayat on September 9. The UDF and the LDF have nine members each and the BJP two in the 20-member panchayat.

T. Narayanan of the CPI(M) was elected vice-president of the civic body on September 9 morning. Besides the nine-member LDF council party, the two BJP councillors in the panchayat also voted in favour of Mr. Narayanan to defeat the ruling UDF's Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) nominee, T.H. Abdulla. Mr. Narayanan took oath of office soon after the election. But his term as vice-president did not last for even an hour. He tendered his resignation to the panchayat president, Padhur Kunhamu by 1 p.m. Thanks to political compulsions, the council witnessed three elections to the post of vice-president but has never had a vice-president in office since the council came into being four years ago. Both the IUML and the Opposition LDF seem to have declared the BJP as `untouchables', making the vice-president post almost impossible to fill. However, the panchayat president, a Congress nominee who won the election to the post with the support of the BJP, is sitting pretty.

"I have reported the matter to the Election Commission, who will decide the next step," said the panchayat secretary, Vidhu A. Menon. Till then, the panchayat will remain without a vice-president and a standing committee. The council itself might be dissolved without a vice-president and a standing committee as election to the civic council is less than a year away.

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