A six-member sub-committee appointed by the Congress party to look into group standoff over the change of leadership in various local bodies in the district has served an ultimatum to the chairpersons of Angamaly and Eloor municipalities to step down from the post within two days.
In a statement issued on Saturday, the committee also directed the presidents of Edathala and Mukkanoor gram panchayats to resign. The decision with regard to demanding their resignations was taken during a meeting of the six-member sub-committee at the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) office on September 11.
According to District Congress Committee president V.J. Paulose, the step comes in the wake of repeated attempts by the committee to break the deadlock over the change of leadership in these local bodies.
The decision has been conveyed to the persons concerned by KPCC president V.M. Sudheeran, he said.
Earlier, Mr. Sudheeran had convened a meeting of KPCC office bearers as well as party MLAs from Ernakulam to address the issue. The meeting, in which Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and UDF convener P.P. Thankachan took part, entrusted a six-member body led by the KPCC president to look into issues pertaining to the change of leadership.
Angamaly municipal chairman C.K. Varghese, meanwhile, reiterated his earlier stance that he was yet to receive any such direction from the party. He said the decisions of the committee were not binding on him as he had already been suspended from the party. “Let the party first cancel my suspension and I may consider complying with the direction,” he said. He also criticised the DCC for not initiating action against eight ‘I’ group councillors who had voted him out during a Left Democratic Front-sponsored no-confidence motion last year.
