KOCHI: With UDF set to effect a major rejig in standing committees of the city corporation which ought to be carried out along with the change of guard in the civic body, the Congress leadership has shortlisted the probable candidates to helm the committees. Sources in the UDF said Malini Biju and P D Martin of the Congress’ ‘I’ group and M B Muraleedharan, Delina Pinheiro and Hema Prahladan of the ‘A’ group are in the running for the posts of chairperson in the committees.
Joseph M J of the KC(M) is also one of the probable candidates, said the sourceThe Congress shortlisted the probables a day after the District Congress Committee (DCC) asked standing committee chairpersons K V P Krishnakumar (tax appeal), A B Sabu (welfare), Gracy Joseph (development) and Shiny Mathew (town planning) to resign before Saturday. Sources said while Malini will be fielded for the development standing committee chairperson post, Delina will be pitched as the chairperson candidate of town planning committee.
“KC(M) councillor Joseph has expressed his interest to contest for the welfare committee chairperson post, as has Muraleedharan, the secretary of the UDF district parliamentary party committee. A consensus on the matter is yet to be reached in the party. Most probably, Joseph will be fielded,” said a source.
It is learnt the IUML district leadership has also decided to remove its councillor PM Harris, the works standing committee chairperson, from the post to pave the way for T K Ashraf. “Though the Congress issued a notice to the councillors, the IUML district leadership is yet to take a final decision. Since UDF has decided to go for a reshuffle, Harris will be forced to resign,” said a source.
A herculean task
Reshuffling of chairpersons will be a herculean task for the UDF leadership. “If the chairperson candidate is already a part of the committee, it may hardly matter. However, the shortlisted candidates belong to different committees. For instance, if Muraleedharan contests for the tax appeal committee chairperson post, he would need to resign from the finance committee, in which he is at present. However, the committee has LDF in majority and Muraleedharan’s exit will further reduce the participation of UDF councillors.
The situation is common across all standing committees. Should any vote become invalid in the election, UDF will have to surrender its chairperson post to the LDF,” said a source. At present, UDF is in power in five standing committees out of eight, including the finance committee, which comes under the deputy mayor. LDF councillors are chairpersons of the health and education standing committees. The UDF district leadership confirmed the change of guard in the corporation will take place only after the election of standing committee chairpersons.
UDF leads 5 panels
UDF is in power in five standing committees out of eight, including the finance committee, which comes under the deputy mayor
LDF councillors are chairpersons of the health and education standing committees