Kochi: In yet another instance of ruckus during a local body meeting, a woman councillor reportedly tried to manhandle the Kochi mayor. Mayor Soumini Jain was returning to her chamber after concluding the discussion on the budget when CPM councillor Sunila Selvan grabbed the her official gown.
When mayor freed herself and reached her chamber, Sunila rushed after her. However, the ruling councillors had reached the chamber by that time and protected the mayor. A heated argument followed between ruling and opposition councillors. BJP councillor Sudha Dileep Kumar, who was a witness to the attack on the mayor, supported Soumini Jain.
The police, who arrived on the scene soon, made enquiries about the incident with the mayor. After the UDF councillors raised a demand, a police complaint was registered against the LDF councillor.
The opposition said that it was protesting against the mayor’s action of passing the budget without voting. But the mayor as well as the deputy mayor T J Vinod said that the opposition had not demanded voting during the meeting. “The budget would have been anyway passed as the ruling front had a clear majority. The opposition too was well aware of this fact,” they said.
Meanwhile, the opposition councillors said that they would file a complaint with the local administration minister and the secretary against the ruling front for passing the budget without a vote.
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