The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : Congress to field candidate for Kochi Mayor's post

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 05, 2005

Kerala

Kerala - Kochi

Congress to field candidate for Kochi Mayor's post

Staff Reporter

Party says UDF partners free to contest Deputy Mayor post

KOCHI: The Congress has decided to field a candidate for the post of Mayor in Kochi Corporation. Though the poll result is a foregone conclusion given the strength of the LDF in the council, the party has decided to field Vinny Abraham as its candidate.

The LDF will field Mercy Williams for the post of Mayor and C.K. Manisankar for Deputy Mayor.

The Left Democratic Front-Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran) combine has a strength of 46 members in the 71-member council. The UDF has the support of 23 members and BJP one. An independent candidate was also elected to the council.

If any of the constituents of the UDF are inclined to contest the Deputy Mayor post, their candidates will be fielded, said K.P. Dhanapalan, DCC president. Otherwise, the party will field V.K. Thankaraj as its Deputy Mayor candidate, he said.

The decision to field the candidates was taken at a meeting of the Congress councillors convened by the DCC president on Tuesday. The party has also postponed the election of Congress council party leader to October 7.

As the Mayor election will be held before the election of the council party leader, DCC president will issue whips for the Mayor and Deputy Mayor elections. The DCC president will elicit the views of the Congress councillors personally and elect the one who gets the maximum support of the councillors, Mr. Dhanapalan said.

At least three councillors are in the fray for the post of council party leader, including A.B. Sabu, Leno Jacob and M. Premachandran.

DIC(K) claim

Meanwhile, the Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran) has reiterated its demand for the post of Deputy Mayor in Kochi Corporation. The party will raise the demand at the next meeting with the LDF leaders, said K.B. Mohammed Kutty, district president of the party. At the same time, the CPI(M) leaders are refusing to entertain the demand of the DIC(K).

The party cannot think of a dispensation where the Deputy Mayor post is given to a front constituent, given the situation in which a person inexperienced in civic administration is tipped to become the Mayor.

No discussions regarding the sharing of Standing Committees took place on Tuesday as the CPI(M) leaders were away in Thiruvananthapuram to attend the State committee meeting.

Talks are likely to resume after Thursday and the election of Mayor and Deputy Mayor.

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