Kerala - Palakkad   

BJP captures Palakkad municipality

Staff Reporter

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PALAKKAD: The Bharathiya Janata Party (BJP), the largest party in the Palakkad municipality with 17 members out of the total of 50, virtually captured power by winning the post of vice-chairman since there was no candidate in the race for chairman's post in the election held on Thursday. .

Thus for all practical purposes, the BJP got the control of the Palakkad municipality for the first time in the district, probably in the State too.

This is because the United Democratic Front (UDF) led by the Congress boycotted the elections to these two important posts as it said that it would not support the BJP or the LDF.

Another reason is that the Congress and the CPI(M) could not agree to implement the United Progress Alliance (UPA) experiment in Palakkad to keep the BJP out of power. Both parties said that they would not support each other or the BJP, thus leaving the ground for the BJP to get the control of the municipality with just 17 seats out of the total of 50. The election to the post of chairman could not be held as no body put up candidates.

Though the BJP is the biggest party in the council, it has no member elected from the Scheduled Caste community to contest for the post of chairman. The post is reserved for Scheduled Caste representative.

Though the LDF which has 16 members and their ally, the DIC(K), one member, it did not put up any candidate for the post of chairman.

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