DMK’s choice of Mayor elect comes with surprise
The Hindu
DINDIGUL
The party high command’s decision to propose the name of J Illamathi (42) for the Mayor of Dindigul Corporation came as a surprise to the DMK party functionaries here on Thursday.
The candidate, a second time councillor, would be the first woman Mayor of Dindigul and the first DMK’s Mayor after the city got upgraded as the Corporation in 2011, the AIADMK had Marudaraj as its Mayor till 2016 with Thulasiram also from the AIADMK as the Deputy Mayor.
For the Deputy Mayor post, the DMK had nominated S Rajappa (56), who was a councillor for two times in the past. Elected from the 32nd ward, he has been with the party for long time and is aware of the civic issues, the party functionaries said and added that they were surprised about the choice of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor candidates, but happy over the selection since they have come from nowhere.
Till Tuesday, both the names of Ms Illamathi and Mr Rajappa were not in the list of probable candidates within the DMK leaders in Dindigul district and when the announcement was made official, the party men initially hesitated, but greeted them by visiting to their houses.
Out of the 48 wards in the Dindigul Corporation, the DMK front has bagged 37 seats, while the AIADMK has 5 seats, BJP with one and five others including Independents.
Stressing on the need for digging into history and unearthing the facts about Buddhism in the country, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge questioned why the Krishna, the banks of which provided a lot of clues on Buddha, was neglected in historical research as compared to the Ganga, the Yamuna, and the Cauvery.
Belagavi-based Bharatesh Education Trust will start a new Engineering college from this academic year. The Bharatesh Institute of Technology will come up on the trust premises in Basavana Kudachi near the Belagavi airport in Sambra. The college has been approved by the All-India Council for Technical Eductaion (AICTE) and is affiliated to VTU Belagavi.