DMK bags Chairperson post in four Municipalities in Namakkal
The Hindu
Candidates of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam got elected as the Chairpersons at four out of five Municipalities in the district. Surprising political parties, an independent became the Chairman in Kumarapalayam Municipality.
However, in Municipalities, the indirect elections saw rebellion from DMK councillors. DMK councillors contested the indirect elections to Chairperson post against party’s official candidates. At Tiruchengode, the party fielded T. Karthikeyan for the Chairperson post. However, S. Nalini, a DMK councillor in the Municipality, contested the indirect election and got elected as Chairperson by winning 18 votes in the 33-member local body.
T. Karthikeyan later contested the election to Deputy Chairperson and won against AIADMK candidate by getting 21 votes. Similarly, in Pallipalayam, M. Selvaraj of DMK contested the Chairman election against party candidate A. Amutha in the 21-member Municipality and won.
At Kumarapalayam Municipality, T. Vijai Kannan, an independent candidate got elected as the Chairman of 33-member Municipality. DMK won 14 seats, AIADMK 10 and nine seats were won by independents in the election. Vijai Kannan contested the election against DMK candidate M. Sathyasheelan. Vijai Kannan got elected as Chairman by polling 18 votes.
Among the 19 Town Panchayats, AIADMK had majority only at Venkarai Town panchayat and AIADMK councillors M. Vijayakumar and M.R. Ravindhar got elected as Chairman and Deputy Chairman respectively. The Deputy Chairman election to Velur panchayat was not held due to lack of quorum.
The election authorities are gearing up for the counting of votes cast in the simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh, scheduled to be held on June 4. The Collectors and Election Officers of Visakhapatnam, Anakapalli and Alluri Sitharama Raju (ASR) districts said on May 23 (Thursday) that their teams were ready for the counting of votes.
Responding to the prolonged water scarcity, the residents of the area took to the streets in protest on Wednesday. The protest, which drew attention to their plight, stopped only after the intervention of the police. It was not until 1.30 p.m. that a 4000-litre tanker was finally delivered by BWSSB, providing relief to the water-starved residents.