Marking an end to the administrative impasse in the Changanassery Municipality, Sajan Francis of Kerala Congress (M) and Shiny Shaji of Congress were on Friday elected as chairman and deputy chairperson of the civic body.
In an election held in two different rounds, Mr. Francis, a nominee of the P.J. Joseph group, defeated Saji Thomas, a rebel candidate from the United Democratic Front, by just one vote to become chairman of the municipality.
Though he had won the first round with 16 votes as against the 15 votes polled by the UDF rebel, the returning officer called for another round of voting citing that no candidate could secure the absolute majority. Accordingly, the BJP candidate who had polled four votes in the first round withdrew from the contest and in the subsequent election, Sajan again emerged winner by the same margin.
Deputy chairperson
Later, Shyni Shaji secured 18 votes to be elected as the deputy chairperson. The candidates fielded by the CPM and the BJP polled 13 and four votes. In the 37-member council, UDF has 18 members (Congress-10, KC(M)-7 and IUML-1), while CPM and BJP have 12 and four members. The remaining three are independent members, which also include a UDF rebel. All but an independent member turned up for voting on Friday. As per an agreement brokered by the United Democratic Front, Sajan Francis was to take over the post from the previous chairman Lalichan Kunniparambil, a Mani loyalist, in August 2019 for the remaining term of 15 months. But with the factional fight in KC(M), the proposal was put on a back burner.
On an intervention by the UDF leadership, Mr. Kunniparambil stepped down from the post in March this year.
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