Kancheepuram DMK councillors demand Mayor’s disqualification
The DMK and its alliance party councillors met the Kancheepuram collector for a second time on Friday and submitted a petition seeking to disqualify Mayor Mahalakshmi Yuvaraj of DMK.
Councillors of the Kancheepuram Corporation addressing reporters about their discontent with Mayor Mahalakshmi Yuvaraj
CHENNAI: Close on the heels of the resignation of two Mayors of DMK in Coimbatore and Tirunelveli, third Corporation facing a similar problem is Kancheepuram counterpart.
The DMK and its alliance party councillors met the Kancheepuram collector for a second time on Friday and submitted a petition seeking to disqualify Mayor Mahalakshmi Yuvaraj of DMK.
The Kancheepuram corporation consists of 51 wards. Mahalakshmi Yuvaraj, who belongs to the DMK party, was elected Mayor after the civic polls. However, a group of DMK councillors were not satisfied with her way of functioning. “The Mayor’s husband Yuvaraj will only visit the wards and handled all ‘financial activities.’ The Mayor remained a mute spectator,” alleged the councillors.
They also complained Mahalakshmi did not support them in any of the development projects in their wards.
A few months ago, the Councillors met the Corporation Commissioner and requested that the Mayor be disqualified since she lost the majority.
As a token of withdrawal of their support to Mahalakshmi, they boycotted the council meeting in June. Only 13 out of 55 councillors accepted the Mayor’s invitation and attended the meeting.
Meanwhile, AIADMK councillors also backed the group raising disqualification call. Amid the dispute, Minister for Municipal Administration KN Nehru tried to broker peace between the two groups, but the detractors of Mahalakshmi refused to budge.
On Friday evening, the DMK Councillors met the collector again and requested to disqualify Mahalakshmi as she lost the majority. The councillors mentioned that the mayor has not held council meetings in Kancheepuram for the past six months, affecting the works of all the wards.
They also requested that the Kancheepuram Corporation Commissioner be transferred since he was siding with the Mayor.
Informed DMK sources said that Minister KN Nehru would make efforts after the Vikravandi bypoll to convince the protesting councillors and the resolve the issue.
