CHENNAI: A day after the State Cabinet met to decide on mayoral elections, the State government on Wednesday promulgated an Ordinance to elect heads of local bodies indirectly.
The decision was criticised by opposition parites as well as the ruling AIADMK’s ally, the BJP.
Defending the decision, the Ordinance reasoned that an indirect election would ensure stability.
“It is considered that if indirect election is conducted for electing mayor/chairperson, there will be stability and collective responsibility among the heads of urban local bodies and all the elected councillors and local bodies will be able to function in a harmonious way,” it read.
BJP State spokesperson SR Sekar said the Ordinance was against democratic principles and that no democractic force would welcome it.
‘Ulterior motive’
“Perhaps the move is aimed at preventing sharing of mayor posts with allies. If the ruling party has guts, it should conduct direct elections to the Mayor posts,” he said. However, Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar defended the decision saying that said there was nothing new in indirect election.
The State government’s decision to revert to indirect election of urban body leaders has drawn flak from not only opposition parties, but also from BJP, an ally of AIADMK. However, other allies – PMK and DMDK – are yet to react. Strongly condemning the move, DMK president MK Stalin alleged the decision showed Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami was fearing defeat.
He also asserted that whatever be the mode of election of heads of urban local bodies, DMK has the guts to face it and will win. TNCC president KS Alagiri is of the view that indirect election of mayors will pave the way for horse trading. CPI State secretary R Mutharasan said heads of urban local bodies should be elected directly by the voters to protect democracy.
CPM State secretary K Balakrishnan demanded that the State government should immediately withdraw the ordinance and it should hold direct election for corporation mayors and chairpersons of municipalities and town panchayats.
In a statement here, MDMK general secretary Vaiko said by reverting to indirect election of mayors, the AIADMK government had snatched away democractic rights of people.
AMMK general secretary TTV Dhinakaran said since the AIADMK government was afraid of rout in the civic elections, it had reverted to indirect election of mayors. AIADMK defence. Defending the decision, Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar said there was nothing new in indirect election.
Rationale behind move
The ordinance promulgated to revert to the indirect election said the mayor/chairperson, when they belong to one particular party and the majority of the councillors belong to other political party/parties, they fail to get utmost cooperation from councillors and this results in conflict and smooth functioning of the council gets affected.
Sometimes, even getting the council meetings convened at regular intervals becomes difficult in such situations. Besides, serving the public comes to a halt, which gets amplified in unimaginable dimensions in such urban local bodies, the ordinance said.