Congress Set to Finalise Standing Panel Nominees

KOCHI: The Congress is expected to finalise its nominees for the standing committee chairpersons of Kochi Corporation council by November 27.  The election to the standing committees will be held on November 30 and the district leadership of the party hopes to complete the discussions with other major constituents of the UDF by Friday. The UDF is  thinking of giving one of the standing committee chairperson posts to LDF, the opposition front.

“The LDF had demanded three standing committee seats, but considering the democratic manners, the UDF may think of giving one post to the opposition. However, it is not mandatory,” according to a party leader.

However, it will not be an easy task for the group managers to finalise the nominees as both ‘I’ and ‘A’ factions have projected strong contenders for the posts. This term, the Works Standing Committee, Tax Appeal and Welfare are under general. The major contenders to these posts are A B Sabu, Muraleedharan, Premakumar and Krishnakumar from the Congress.

The Muslim League will claim one of the standing committees as T K Ashraf who was the Health Standing Committee chairman during the last council is one of its strong contenders. If the UDF decides to give the standing committee that will be headed by women to the LDF, then they will have to select from the  Town Planning, Health, Development and Education standing Committees. Candidates including Minimol, Delina Pinhero, Gracy Jospeh and Gracy Babu Jacob from the Congress party are strong contenders for the posts.

In the last Council, when the the UDF won absolute majority, the Congress had given standing committee chairperson posts to the Kerala Congress (M) and Muslim League. KC(M) has one nominee in the present Council, Johnson Mash. If KC(M) too strongly claims for the standing committee post, it will be a tough task for the UDF to divide the posts.