KOCHI: All eyes are now on the District Congress Committee (DCC), with the 48- hour deadline given to corporation development standing committee chairperson Gracy Joseph to submit her resignation scheduled to end on Monday.
According to the notice served on Gracy by DCC chief TJ Vinodh, MLA, action will be initiated if she fails to stand down. It remains to be seen whether the party will crack the whip if Gracy refuses to quit. And the issue is threatening to come in the way of the UDF game plan to elect new faces to all standing committees ahead of replacing Mayor Soumini Jain. On the likely course of action, TJ Vinodh on Monday said the time granted to Gracy ends only by Monday.
“She has not informed the party that she will not quit the post. Let’s see what happens,” he said. Gracy told TNIE that she does not intend to quit. “I have not accepted the DCC notice. Then why should I reply to it?” she said.
A senior DCC member said a whip will be issued against Gracy and if she defies it, she will have to face a vote of no-confidence from members of the development standing committee. But, Gracy said the issue will be looked into when a no-confidence motion is moved.
The UDF council party had, in December 2015, decided that all standing committee chairpersons will have to resign from their posts two-and-a-half years into their term. As part of effecting a change of guard in the corporation, the DCC had directed all Congress chairpersons to resign by November 23.
But Gracy had been granted an extension till December 20 to ensure the completion of projects under her committee. However, in the light of the election to the town planning committee on December 19, where Dileena Pinheiro of the UDF lost to LDF’s O P Sunil, she decided not to resign.
Shiny Mathew, AB Sabu, and KVP Krishnakumar resigned as chairpersons of town planning, welfare and tax appeals standing committees, respectively, as per the agreement.