Chennai: An autorickshaw driver has been nominated as the Mayor of Kumbakonam Corporation in Tamil Nadu, even as R Priya, 28, of the DMK was elected unopposed as the first Dalit woman Mayor of Chennai Corporation.
The Congress, which contested the local body polls in alliance with DMK, nominated K Saravanan, 42, as the Mayor of the newly upgraded Corporation. Kumbakonam Corporation is the lone Corporation allotted to the Congress.
Saravanan has been driving an autorickshaw for a living for the past eight years. He has been living in a rented accommodation at Tookkampalayam Street with his wife and three children.
In Hosur, S A Sathya, with roots in Malappuram, will head the Corporation as its Mayor. Born as the youngest child of the late Appukuttan and Rugmini Amma of Plakkattil, Thavanur, Sathya had represented Hosur, a major industrial city bordering Karnataka, in the Tamil Nadu Assembly for two years, after winning the bypoll in 2019. He belongs to the DMK.
All the 20 mayoral candidates of the ruling DMK and its ally Congress' nominee on Friday were elected in indirect polls to the top posts in civic bodies in Tamil Nadu and they took charge.
Indirect polls to elect chairpersons of municipalities and town panchayats, however, witnessed tussles and high drama in several regions while DMK ward members, violating the party's diktat, defeated nominees of alliance parties in a string of local bodies.
It includes posts allotted by the DMK in civic bodies for elected representatives of allies including the CPI(M) and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK).
After angered ruling party's partners cried foul, DMK president and Chief Minister M K Stalin expressed profound regret to allies and instructed his party ward members who defeated nominees of alliance parties to immediately resign from their posts. Stalin warned them that if they did not quit, they would be expelled from the party's primary membership.
The DMK chief asked his party people to resign from such posts, earmarked for allies, and meet him later.
He instructed district secretaries and those in-charge to take quick action in this regard. Stalin chided such party men for besmirching DMK's fair name by taking away seats allotted to allies.
After Stalin's action, allies thanked him profusely and said it was a historic step that would further increase their faith on him and promote goodwill.
Following the party chief's stern message, the DMK apparatus swung into action and suspended its Poonamallee town secretary M Ravikumar for violating party discipline. It also relieved N Suresh Rajan, a DMK veteran from his post of secretary of Kanyakumari east party district.
He was replaced by R Mahesh, who was elected as mayor of Nagercoil Corporation, following a closely contested fight between the DMK and BJP.
The scenario in which party men worked against official nominees was also witnessed in parties including the AIADMK, which expelled 6 of its workers in Villupuram district. It also dismissed 8 of its functionaries belonging to Salem rural party district for working in support of the DMK candidates.
Earlier in the day, Priya Rajan, the ruling party's nominee was elected unopposed and she took charge as Chennai mayor in the presence of state ministers Ma Subramanian, a former mayor, and P K Sekar Babu.
The 28-year old woman is the first Dalit person to become the mayor of Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC). A postgraduate in commerce, she is also the youngest to assume office as Chennai mayor.
