Meeting to break the stalemate in palakkad civic body to be convened

Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 09

In a bid to break the stalemate in the Palakkad Municipality over the election of the civic body’s Chairman following the reluctance of the UDF and LDF to support the BJP, the Kerala government has today decided to convene a meeting of state level leaders of different political parties.

The government is understood have no plans to hold a re-election in the municipality.

The Chief Minister, Mr Oommen Chandy, in his weekly briefing after the cabinet meeting said that the state cabinet had discussed the report of the Palakkad District Collector, who had made an attempt to resolve the problem as per the directive of the Kerala High Court. . The crisis has emerged from the fractured verdict in the recently held elections to the local bodies where none has got absolute majority.

In the 50-member municipal council the BJP has got 17 members while the LDF-DIC(K) has 17 and the UDF 16. As there is no eligible candidate from the BJP to contest for the Chairmanship reserved for the Scheduled Caste, the LDF and the UDF practicing untouchability with the BJP refused to field candidates saying they would not share power with the saffron party.

In fact, in the previous meeting too, the BJP offered “constructive support to LDF and UDF to elect the chairman”.