TIRUNELVELI/TENKASI: As many as 38 DMK councillors of Tirunelveli corporation have petitioned commissioner Shubham Dnyandeorao Thakare demanding him to table the no-confidence motion against their own party mayor PM Saravanan. They have been protesting against Saravanan for the past several months and had already petitioned Chief Minister MK Stalin, ministers KN Nehru, Durai Murugan and Thangam Thennarasu for the removal of the mayor.
"The DMK councillors publicly pasted posters across the city levelling corruption charges against Saravanan and released audio and video clips about the same on social media. They refused to attend the council meeting organised by the commissioner a day before Deepavali after Saravanan allegedly did not give them their 'share of kickbacks' taken from the contractors," said sources.
Stating that the mayor is not addressing their ward issues, about 20 councillors staged a sit-in protest during the recent grievance meeting in the corporation office. Following these events, the DMK headquarters removed three councillors and a woman councillor's husband from the party.
Speaking to the media in a press conference, AIADMK district secretary Thachai Ganesaraja said four councillors from their party would support the DMK councillors' no-confidence motion if it is tabled. "The commissioner should introduce the no-confidence motion as per the law within a month. The actual problem between the DMK councillors and the mayor is 'sharing the kickbacks' from contractors," he said. The corporation council has the total strength of 55 councillors including 51 from DMK and its allied parties.
Meanwhile, the no-confidence motion moved by the 13 AIADMK councillors of Sankarankovil municipality against the DMK chairperson Uma Maheswari could not be passed as the DMK and its allied parties' councillors boycotted the council meeting on Thursday. The Sankarankovil municipality council has a total strength of 30 members.