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Cong. bid to get grama panchayat members disqualified

By Our Staff Reporter

KASARAGOD JULY 10. A member of the Kallar grama panchayat in the district has recently represented to the Election Commission appealing for the disqualification of three of her former party associates and colleagues in the panchayat council.

The representation by the panchayt member, P.K.Ramani, belonging to the Congress, sought the disqualification of the members, V. Kunhiraman, T. Narayanan and Elsy Abraham, who were expelled from the Congress party very recently consequent to their violating a whip given by the DCC.

The DCC had instructed the Congress members in its whip to vote in favour of the no-confidence motion moved by the UDF against the panchayat president, P.K. Raman, who had been made president for ignoring the party decision and consequently been suspended from the party leadership.

Thanks to the infighting in the Congress camp in the panchayat, Mr.Raman managed to win the election to the post of president by defeating the party nominee to the post. Consequent to this, the party had expelled Mr.Raman from the primary membership of the party a couple of years ago. However, this had not affected Mr. Raman from acting as president of the panchayat, thanks to the support extended by the majority of members, which included Congress members belonging to the `A' faction. He also survived two no-confidence motions moved against him, one last year and the other late last month.

Although the Congress has eight councilors (the IUML and the CPI, one each) in the 10-seater panchayat council, the party could not unseat Mr.Raman as three of its own members had voted against the no-confidence motion on both the occasions. The lone IUML councillor, who had earlier supported Mr. Raman, had however favoured the no-confidence motion this time which had also failed due to the dissidence from the Congress camp.

However, this time the three could not go scot-free and they had been suspended from primary membership of the party for six years by the DCC president, K.P.Kuhikannan.

And despite not being a Congress member, Mr.Raman was still the president of the panchayat where the party alone had eight members, apart from the IUML councillor. Only the disqualification of the three councillors, if ordered by the Election Commission, and a possible substitution of members in the council through a byelection, would change the party equations in the panchayat council.

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