The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : 153 councillors sworn in

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Thursday, Oct 26, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

153 councillors sworn in

Staff Reporter

Friends, party members crowd hall

Chennai: It was standing room only in the Chennai Corporation Council Hall during the first hour of the swearing-in ceremony for the new councillors on Wednesday.

Friends and relatives of councillors squeezed into the hall, into the press gallery and even the benches reserved for MLAs to watch the taking of oaths. Jubiliant party cadres of the Democratic Progressive Alliance cheered and clapped for their representatives.

Corporation Commissioner M. P. Vijayakumar administered the oaths. Of the 155 candidates elected, 153 councillors, including 52 women, were sworn in.

The two AIADMK councillors (wards 61 and 71), who had tendered their resignations, did not participate.

M. Subramanian, ward 140 councillor and the DMK's Mayoral candidate, received loud applause when he went up to take the oath. Elections for the Mayor and Deputy Mayor posts are scheduled for October 29.

Many of the councillors extolled the virtues of their leaders before they were sworn in.

DMK councillors affixed the phrase `Kalaignar kattalaipadi' (as ordered by Kalaignar) to the oath's last line, `I swear that I will discharge my duties honestly'.

Some of them also praised Local Administration Minister M. K. Stalin and DMK's South Chennai District Secretary J. Anbazhagan.

Tributes paid

Congress councillors paid tributes to the late Congress leader G. K. Moopanar and Congress Party chief Sonia Gandhi.

Even the former Deputy Mayor S. Thiagarajan got a mention. PMK candidates annexed praises of party founder S. Ramadoss to their oath.

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