Kerala - Kollam   

Hectic activity to select new Mayor

KOLLAM: Mayor N. Padmalochanan’s resignation is expected to be formally accepted on Saturday when it reaches the Corporation Secretary’s office by post. Following the acceptance of the resignation, Deputy Mayor Veliyam Rajan of the CPI will hold the Mayor’s charge.

The Corporation Secretary will then formally inform the government and the State Election Commission on the Mayor’s post remaining vacant and the need to elect a new Mayor. This will be followed by the Election Commission fixing a date for the election and informing the Corporation Secretary about it.

Meanwhile, the CPI(M) has begun informal moves to select a candidate from among its councillors for the new Mayor. A couple of names are already in circulation. CPI(M) Kollam East area committee secretary X. Earnest said that the next Mayor too would be a CPI(M) candidate. The post for the remaining term was the CPI(M)’s prerogative, he said.

At the same time, there is general anxiety whether the CPI will stake claim for the Mayor’s post. In 2008, following a showdown between the CPI(M) and the CPI over election to the president’s post of the Kollam District Cooperative (KDC) Bank, the CPI strongly staked its claim to the Mayor’s post for the last one-year term.

But after the CPI(M) agreed to give the president’s post of the KDC Bank to the CPI, the latter “suspended the demand for the Mayor’s post.” When asked about the issue, CPI district secretary K. Prakash Babu said his party would not take any decision to create problems for the CPI(M) or the LDF at this juncture.

“We will not in any way exploit the situation,” he said. Taking disciplinary action against Mr. Padmalochanan was the CPI(M)’s internal issue. He, at the same time, said the CPI’s stake to the Mayor’s post was not a closed chapter but did not wish to elaborate.

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