Uncertainty still prevails in Kalamassery Municipality
KOCHI: Even though the District Congress Committee and Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee gave a respite to the uncertainty in Kalamassery Municipality by removing A group leader Jessy Peter from the chairperson post, the Congress leadership in the district has again landed in troubled water.
Though the parliamentary party committee had taken a decision to give the four standing committee seats such as Public works, Health, Welfare and Development to the A group with the resignation of Jessy, the I group has now taken a ‘U’ turn.
According to party sources in the Municipality, the Works Committee chairperson and senior I group leader A K Basheer expressed his unwillingness to hand over his position to the A group. “ As per the decision of the seven-member subcommittee headed by DCC president T J Vinodh, the four standing committee seats have to be handed over to the A group after the resignation of the chairperson. But now the I Group has expressed unwillingness to hand over the four seats. It is purely against the agreement that both groups had decided earlier,” said a source in the A group.
According to the source, A group will raise the issue before the party leaders in the coming days. “An A group leader has resigned from the post of chairperson based on the direction of sub-committee formed as per the direction of KPCC and the DCC. If the I group is not willing to keep its word, we will stage a protest against the move,” said the source, adding the decision of I group councillors has not yet materialised. “We are unaware what decision they have taken in this regard. The four standing committee chairperson should have resigned on Thursday itself. But they have not taken any decision in this regard even after Jessy stepped down to appoint I group leader Rukiya Jamal as the Chairperson,” said the party source.
However, Congress mandalam president Basheer told Express the party has not taken any final decision on handing over the seats to the A group.“As per the decision taken in the parliamentary party committee, the agreement was to hand over three standing committee seats to the A group. So far, no decision has been taken after Jessy resigned. The decision has to be taken by the party leadership,” he said.