Kalamassery municipal chairperson, Opposition councillors on collision course
The Hindu
LDF members lay siege to Seema Kannan’s cabin; 19 arrested
Kalamassery municipal chairperson Seema Kannan and the Opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF) councillors seem to be on a collision course with both sides continuing to trade charges and neither willing to relent.
For the second day running, tension erupted in the chairperson’s cabin as the LDF councillors laid siege to it for two hours and Ms. Kannan asked the Kalamassery Station House Officer to arrest them. Following this, 19 protesting councillors were arrested and removed from her cabin. Later in the day, she petitioned the District Police Chief (Kochi City), accusing LDF councillors of trying to physically harm her and stop her from discharging her constitutional duties.
Acrimonious scenes were witnessed after the ruling and Opposition councillors almost came to blows in the chairperson’s cabin over the premature dismissal of the council meeting and unilateral passage of the agenda on Wednesday.
A group of 13 men from Dakshin Datta Para village in Nadia district, West Bengal, busy transplanting paddy has been catching the eye of many in Mayildathurai district in recent days. A video clip of the Bengali migrant agricultural workers Singing Hindi and Bengali songs while planting paddy at Nallathukudi village here has gone viral.
Leaders and legislators hailing from Ballari, which is part of the Kalyana Karnataka region, seem to be a source of much political upheaval in Karnataka, going by recent history. This has been the case since the time illegal mining hit national and international headlines in the 2000s and the place gained reputation as “Republic of Ballari”.
The former BJP MLA of Udupi K. Raghupathi Bhat claimed on Saturday that he contesting the Legislative Council elections from South West Graduates’ Constituency as rebel candidate made the saffron party field its party leader C. T. Ravi in the biennial elections to the Legislative Council from the Legislative Assembly.