KANNUR: Once again Congress rebel P K Ragesh called the shots in Kannur Corporation, and this time he switched sides to the Congress during the election to the standing committees on Tuesday. The truce between Ragesh and the District Congress Committee, helped UDF wrest the seven out of the eight Standing Working Committee posts.
Ragesh had earlier dealt a big blow to the UDF, as he went on to support the LDF in the election to the Mayor’s post in the first Corporation election. However, the Congress has managed to woo back Ragesh after DCC agreed to immediately implement his few conditions and address others amicably in the coming days in a time-bound manner.
The LDF has more to worry. The new twist is unlikely to go well with the LDF camp and is a matter of worry, as in this case the possibility of councillors choosing to have a non-confidence motion after five months may help the UDF come back to power with the support of Ragesh.
In the election held on Tuesday, except for one, which went to the LDF following the invalid vote by IUML candidate, rest of the posts went in favour of the UDF.
The standing committee election process which was steered in the presence of Additional District Magistrate (ADM) O Muhammed Aslam, the LDF candidate E Beena won the standing committee for the welfare, following a draw between UDF and LDF, when one of the IUML councillor vote became invalid.
Other seven standing committees include the UDF candidate O Radha (Development), Rasheeda Mahalin (Health), P K Preetha (Public works), Seena KP (Town Planning) Meenas Thamittom (Tax and appeal ), Shahina Moideen (Education and sports) and C Sameer (Finance). The election to the chairman post for the standing committee will be held later and all the councilors will became part of standing committee. Three nominees from LDF and UDF will be included in all standing committees along with the elected members in the seven-member committee.
Interestingly it was a big day for the Congress rebel P K Ragesh, who made the DCC fall on their knees to garner his support. In return the DCC agreed to his demand, including the transfer of Cooperative department district Joint Registrar to Wayanad and Kannur Town Sub-inspector Sanal to Vadakara Crime Branch.
However, his other demands like the withdrawal of suspension of nine Congress rebels and reconstituting the Pallikunnu Congress committee and other organisational matters will be considered later. A meeting of Congress leaders led by K Sudhakaran at the District Congress Committee (DCC) office late last night, where it was assured to settle the issues with rebel workers amicably.