First woman Mayor of Coimbatore resigns amid controversies; Tirunelveli Mayor also quits chair

COIMBATORE: Coimbatore Mayor Kalpana Anandakumar on Wednesday tendered her resignation to Corporation Commissioner M Sivaguru Prabakaran.

Kalpana, who is the first woman Mayor of Coimbatore, sent the resignation letter to the commissioner through a staff.

“The Mayor gave the resignation letter through her assistant citing health and personal reasons. Her resignation has been accepted,” he said to the media.

Speculations were rife on her resignation following her visit to Chennai for medical treatment. Even the weekly grievance meetings to be chaired by the Mayor remained suspended.

Hailing from a modest background and a relatively unknown face even in political circles, Kalpana’s anointment as Mayor following the 2022 local body polls raised the eyebrows of many. She is the councilor of Ward No 19.

However, her tenure was embroiled in controversy as several councillors including some from the ruling party accused her of being biased in allocating funds for development projects in their wards. Allegations of corruption also surfaced against her and her husband.

Besides these reasons, in the Lok Sabha polls, it is said BJP State president K Annamalai secured more votes than DMK’s ‘Ganapathi’ P Rajkumar in the 19th ward, where she won as a councillor. This turned out to be a sour point for the ruling party.

Lastly, in 2014, AIADMK Mayor SM Velusamy stepped down from the post of Mayor owing to similar controversies and face-off with other functionaries.

Following the resignation of Kalpana, several women councillors were lobbying hard to grab the top post.

Nellai Mayor also quits chair

In another development, the Mayor of Tirunelveli Corporation PM Saravanan tendered his resignation on Wednesday.

Earlier, Saravanan, who represented DMK from the 16th ward, was elected as the mayor by his party councilors in 2022.

DMK had secured 44 out of 55 seats of Tirunelveli Corporation when civic polls were held.

Saravanan was not on good terms with other councilors and council meetings often witnessed problems.

Discontent with his leadership, the party high command in Chennai conducted an inquiry with Saravanan and KN Nehru, Minister for Municipal Administration also held talks with the councillors.

When the Corporation council meeting was scheduled on June 28, many councillors boycotted the meeting, which was later cancelled.

Further sources said a couple of days ago, Saravanan approached the party headquarters in Chennai and was said to have tendered his resignation letter citing personal reasons.

Commissioner of Corporation Thakare Shubham Dnyandeorao received the resignation letter officially.

The Commissioner said that he received two letters – one from Minister Nehru and the other from Saravanan. His resignation was accepted. Further, he informed that the council meeting would be held on July 8 and Deputy Mayor KR Raju would chair the meeting.