COIMBATORE: The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) is making a concerted effort, including approaching the court, to be declared the Opposition party in the Coimbatore Corporation Council.

The party contests the claim of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) that it was the main Opposition, despite its councillor being Deputy Mayor.

Led by ward 71 councillor and former North Zone chairman P. Rajkumar, an AIADMK team submitted a petition from party urban district secretary and Palladam MLA S.M. Velusamy to Corporation Commissioner P. Muthuveeran on Wednesday, staking claim to the status of Opposition party.

The AIADMK has 10 councillors and the DMK 29 in the council.

The AIADMK members also ask why the DMK is desperate to become the Opposition when it has even given the Mayorship to a party with only eight councillors. The petition points out that the DMK's position in the council should be described as part of the ruling combine and not as part of the Opposition.

The City Municipal Corporation Act says that the Deputy Mayor shall perform the tasks of the Mayor in the latter's absence and that includes holding the council meetings. Mr. Rajkumar points out that the Deputy Mayor is given an office, a personal assistant and an official car. "How then does his party become the Opposition?"

Sources in the DMK argue the party can be the Opposition as the Mayor belongs to the Congress. The AIADMK contests this, pointing out that the Deputy Mayor, though without any executive power, has to step in for the Mayor during his absence. Therefore the DMK's argument is not valid, it says.

A sticking point in the controversy is that there is no rule that clearly lays down whether or not the DMK can be the Opposition in the current situation.

Both sides are basing their claims on the ambiguity caused by the absence of any mention of a party's claim to the Opposition's position when its member is the Deputy Mayor.

"There may be no rule. But, morally, the DMK does not have the right to claim that position," says Mr. Rajkumar. Stating that the party may even approach the court for a solution, he is confident that the official car and staff for the Deputy Mayor will make his party's arguments tenable in the court.

The DMK says it was the main Opposition party from 1996 to 2001 when the Mayor was from the alliance partner, Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC). But, counters the AIADMK{lt} the Deputy Mayor also was from the TMC then. If the Deputy Mayor was from the Congress or any other alliance party, the question would not have arisen.

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