Tamil Nadu may yet again revert to direct election of mayors
CHENNAI: Will it be direct election of mayors and municipal chairpersons in the upcoming local body polls? Talks among the official circles were rife in the last few days that the state will revert to direct election of the mayors, as opposed to being elected by the councillors.
On Sunday, when the ruling AIADMK party invited application from the its party members to contest in the local body polls, the announcement also sought candidates for the mayor and municipal chairman posts of local bodies. This has lent credence to the rumours.
Coincidentally, the State Cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami last week also discussed the mode of election of mayors of municipal corporations, chairpersons of municipalities and town panchayats. It is anticipated that the State Election Commission will notify the elections in the last week of this month or in the first week of December.
A former AIADMK corporation councillor from a delta district told Express on condition of anonymity, “It is clear that the upcoming mayoral election would be a direct election (of mayors) that’s why our party has invited applications from the cadres for mayor post and municipal chairman post. If not, they would have been invited applications only for corporation councillors and municipal councillors.”
Under the indirect election, one of the councillors will contest for the Mayor post and will win based on the votes of the ward councillors. This also often leads to horse trading of the councillors to capture the prestigious mayor post. In case of direct election, the parties need not worry about it and the mayor post will remain with the most popular party in the elections.
In the past, the mode of election of the mayor was often changed between direct election and indirect election as per the convenience of the party in power (see table). In 2016, when the local body polls were announced, it was announced that the elections of mayors and municipal chairman would be indirect. The local body elections was not conducted in 2016 and in the following years due to various reasons.
Commenting on this latest development over the direct election for mayor and other posts, veteran journalist T Koodalarsan said, “Indirect election would mostly pave way for horse-trading. Hence, the government should consider holding direct elections for mayors,"
Timeline of events:
- 1996 and 2001 local body election: Direct election for mayor, municipal chairman and town panchayats.
- 2006: Indirect election by means the mayors, municipal Chairmans’ and town panchayat presidents were elected by the elected councillors of the respective local body.
- 2011: Direct election, the mayors, municipal Chairmans’ and town panchayat presidents were directly elected by the voters.