In a first, a woman councillor of the Bahujan Samaj Party has been elected as the president of a panchayat in the state.
In the elections held on Wednesday, for the post of the president at Koruthodu panchayat, Bindu Biju who had the support of UDF, won by eight votes to four. T V Seethamma of LDF was her opponent. This is for the first time in the state that the party which represents Bahujans (SC, ST, OBCs and minorities) has bagged the post of a panchayat president.
Bindu told Express that she, as the head of the civic body, would focus on implementing more schemes for the welfare of Scheduled Caste community.
Bindu Biju had won the civic body elections in 2010 by a margin of 112 votes from the 10th ward of the panchayat known as 504 Moongoli, a hilly area, where the majority of voters belong to the SC community.
The UDF, which enjoys majority in the panchayat, had no option but to support Bindu, because neither the Congress nor the Kerala Congress (M) had a ward member from the SC community. The post of the president was reserved for SC women.
The election for the post of panchayat president was held after Vijayamma Raju who held the post was disqualified by the election commission. Vijayamma had contested the civic polls in 2010, as an independent with the support of the CPI, but later defected to UDF to become the panchayat president.
After the election commission ordered her disqualification, Vijayamma moved the court challenging the order. The decision is now pending in the court.
At present, Congress has five members, KC(M) 2, CPM 4 and BSP 1 member in the civic body.