: Even as just a few months are left for the local body elections in Kerala, the Angamaly municipality here on Monday witnessed yet another no-confidence motion, leading to the ouster of its vice-chairperson Lissy Baby.
Municipality officials said the motion moved by the ruling Left Democratic Front was passed with the support of 16 councillors. In the 30-member council, LDF has 12 members while UDF has 13 councillors.
The stance of the four Congress dissidents, who stood in favour of the motion cost Ms Baby the chair. One rebel Congress councillor was absent as she had gone abroad
The Congress-led United Democratic Front, meanwhile, abstained from the proceedings.
C.C. Sasidharan, Regional Joint Director (urban), who presided over the day’s proceedings, said the civic body could choose a new vice-chairperson after 15 days.
The ouster of Ms. Baby also marked a new turn in the infighting between the ‘A’ and ‘I’ groups within the Congress party, which forced the groups to hand over the chairperson’s post to the LDF about six months ago. Commenting on the development, the outgoing vice chairperson said her ouster was the result of a conspiracy hatched by the Congress rebels in collusion with the LDF.
Meanwhile, the ‘I’ group members have already approached the Election Commission with a petition seeking disqualification of five rebel Congress councillors who violated party whip issued earlier, which is pending before the State election commission. C.K. Varghese, previous chairman of the UDF-led council had to step down from the post after the District Congress Committee had vowed to support an LDF-backed no-confidence motion to be moved against him. Following this, Mr. Varghese along with four other dissident councillors turned the tables in favour of the LDF and supported their candidate Benny Moonjely, the incumbent chairman. The civic body, which has witnessed a flurry of no-confidence motions and ousters over the last couple of years, also holds the record of having 22 chairpersons within 30 years of its existence.
The Angamaly municipality holds the dubious record of having 22 chair-persons in 30 years.
