THANJAVUR: DMK's defeat in the assembly elections and parting of ways by the Congress has caused uncertainty regarding the post of mayor in Thanjavur and Kumbakonam corporations, respectively.
While in Thanjavur, Mayor S Ramanathan of the DMK resigned from the post to contest in the elections and lost, Kumbakonam mayor K Saravanan of Congress may face pressure from DMK councillors to step down. After Ramanathan resigned as mayor and 45th ward member to pursue his MLA dreams, deputy mayor Anjugam Boopathy was expected to be elected as mayor.
However, there is no word yet on when indirect elections to elect the mayor will be conducted. "There are two vacancies in the corporation council. One is in ward 45 which was vacated by Ramanathan and the other is in ward 24 where councillor J V Gopal of AIADMK died. Elections to the wards have be conducted first and then indirect election for mayor post should be held ," said a senior DMK functionary.
"A total of four mayors have resigned their posts across the state to contest in the assembly election. We don't know what the new government is going to do," the functionary added. The Thanjavur corporation has 51 wards. The DMK has 35 members, AIADMK 6, Congress 2, VCK, CPM, AMMK and BJP one each. Two others were elected as independents.
Further , there are questions if Saravanan would continue as mayor after the Congress snapped its ties with DMK, which has a strength of 37 members in the council. Out of 48 wards, DMK members were elected in 37 wards, followed by three from AIADMK, three independents, two from Congress and each one member from IUML, VCK and CPM. Based on a pre-poll agreement, Kumbakonam mayor post was allotted to Congress and ward 17 member K Saravanan was elected.
However, there was constant friction between him and DMK members during council meetings. Now that the Congress has snapped its ties with DMK and joined hands with TVK, there are talks of the Dravidian major withdrawing support to Saravanan. When contacted, a DMK councillor told TNIE that as of now they were not thinking about withdrawing support. "We will act as per the high command's directions", he said.
