THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The City Corporation got the youngest Mayor in its history on Wednesday when 34-year-old V K Prasanth of CPM was sworn in. Rakhi Ravikumar of CPI is the Deputy Mayor. District Collector Biju Prabhakar administered the oath of office to the Mayor, who in turn sworn in the Deputy Mayor.
The atmosphere at the corporation office was rife with suspense as the process of Mayor election commenced inside. The results were revealed hours later in the afternoon.
BJP had lined up V G Girikumar and UDF put in the name of Johnson Joseph for the post. The swearing in ceremony which was planned to be held in the afternoon got delayed by many hours and was held at 4 pm in the Council Hall.
Prasanth garnered 42 votes to take the lead, whereas Girikumar secured 35 and Johnson Joseph received 20. One vote for LDF by Poonkulam councillor C Sathyan became invalid since he did not put his name and signature on the ballot paper.
V R Sini of UDF was not allowed to vote since she came in late. Rakhi Ravikumar of CPI got 43 votes to win the title. BJP had Ramya Ramesh S R and UDF Sajeena for the post. The independent candidate from Sreekariyam Lathakumari abstained from voting.
Another highlight is that the Mayor and Deputy Mayor are both from the legal profession. Both are practising advocates. A debutante in the council, Prasanth got elected from Kazhakkoottam ward and Vazhuthacaud proved lucky ground for Rakhi, earning a ticket for the second time.
After the swearing-in ceremony, leaders of all political parties who got seats in the council spoke. Johnson Joseph spoke for UDF, M R Gopan for BJP, S Pushpalatha for CPM, Solomon Vettucaud for CPI, Beemapally Rasheed for Muslim League, Palayam Rajan for Congress (S), Satheesh for Kerala Congress and V R Sini for CMP.