The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Corporation council set for stormy meeting

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 15, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Corporation council set for stormy meeting

Karthik Subramanian

Odds stacked against Deputy Mayor

CHENNAI : The Chennai Corporation council meeting must be convened before this month-end and it promises to be a stormy affair. Deputy Mayor R. Thiagarajan, who had been elected to the council on an AIADMK ticket in 2001 and was until seven months ago the target of the main opposition parties in the council, the DMK and the Congress, has switched camps. The AIADMK that holds the majority is now keen to upstage him.

More important, the local body elections are due in October and all parties are looking to make the most of the remaining meetings. There is also the contentious issue of whether Mr.Thiagarajan, according to the Chennai City Municipal Corporation Act, 1919, has ceased to be a councillor by missing three consecutive meetings.

He did not attend the meetings conducted in November and February. The two budget meetings in February were announced as separate meetings in the official notification. There is still the opportunity for the Corporation Council to reinstate him in the next meeting. That seems unlikely as AIADMK holds the majority.

When questioned about the possible disqualification, Mr. Thiagarajan said the writ petition he had filed in the Madras High Court challenging the validity of the previous three meetings was still pending. He claimed that legally his disqualification could not be taken up in the next meeting.

Meanwhile, several opposition councillors in the council are not yet ready to bury the hatchet with Mr. Thiagarajan. Several senior opposition councillors, particularly from the DMK, feel it will not be easy to forget some of the excesses committed by Mr. Thiagarajan when he was in the AIADMK. The only redeeming factor for Mr. Thiagarajan, according to them, was that he had recently joined the Congress, one of the key constituents of the DMK-led front.

DMK floor leader C.V. Malayan said: "It is impossible to forget the manner in which he conducted the council in the last three years. We will consult our party high command on what stand to take when he convenes the next council meeting."

The councillors also point out that Mr. Thiagarajan had been vindictive towards them even outside the council hall. Some DMK councillors still face charges on police cases filed by him.

Independent councillor and DMK sympathiser Syed Masood said: "He crossed all limits when it came attacking DMK leaders and he was particularly harsh when it came to Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and Local Administration Minister and former Mayor M.K. Stalin. His remarks are there in the council records and it will be difficult to accept him in a friendly position."

Several DMK councillors expressed similar sentiments though they were not willing to be quoted saying anything adverse. "He has joined the Congress now and we will act the way our high command asks us to.But he will never gain overall acceptance with us," says one DMK councillor, who was repeatedly evicted by Mr. Thiagarajan during the time he convened the council meetings. The Deputy Mayor though insists that the Congress and the DMK councillors were with him. "I have already paid my respects to all their leaders," he said.

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