KOCHI: The election of members to the eight standing committees of Kochi corporation was held on Wednesday, with the Congress-led UDF securing a clear majority across the board.
The committees for health, public works, town planning, tax appeal, and education and sports each have nine members, while those for finance, development, and welfare have ten members.
Ernakulam additional district magistrate Vinod Raj served as the returning officer. The chairpersons for the committees will be elected on January 13. The finance panel will be headed by deputy mayor Deepak Joy.
According to sources, the public works committee is likely to be headed by Muslim League’s T K Ashraf, who was chairman of the health standing committee in the outgoing LDF council.
The UDF nominated a woman member to each of the eight committees, as mandated by law. With all three fronts nominating the exact number of councillors to the standing committees, the election was avoided. As several LDF members arrived late for the meeting, the council witnessed a debate with the UDF arguing that they be denied the right to vote.
The councillors were later allowed to participate in the procedure since no election was required. Following the debate, the LDF alleged that a few of its councillors had not received notice of the meeting.