Nine months after wresting power on a razor-thin margin, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) was voted out in a no-confidence motion moved jointly by the apolitical outfit Chellanam Twenty20 and the United Democratic Front (UDF) on Wednesday.
In the 21-member house, Panchayat president and CPI(M) leader K.D. Prasad was unseated by 12 votes to nine after eight members of the Chellanam Twenty20 and four members of the UDF voted in favour of the no-confidence motion.
The LDF managed to secure power in the first place after UDF members stayed away from voting, giving it a marginal victory of nine to eight votes.
“It is political horse trading of the kind the Congress is now being identified with, as its elected representatives across the country go in droves to the BJP. The apolitical outfit Chellanam Twenty20, on the other, hand, had fought the election painting both the LDF and the UDF as corrupt but has now joined hands with the Congress. Ultimately, it will cost the Congress, as it was at their expense that the Chellanam Twenty20 had managed to seal the victory of their candidates,” said Mr. Prasad.
The Chellanam Twenty20 and the Congress have agreed to share the president and vice president posts between them. Chellanam Twenty20 member from Ward 8, K.L. Joseph, has been chosen as the president candidate, while the Congress is likely to split the term of vice president between its two elected women members Gracy Justin and Anila Sebastian.
“Though we had approached them in the past for a common front against the LDF, the Chellanam Twenty20 turned us down then. This time though the initiative has come from them. The outfit here has nothing to do with the namesake party of Kizhakkambalam,” reasoned Thomas Gregory, Congress mandalam president.
Meanwhile, the Chellanam Twenty20 justified joining forces with the UDF alleging discrimination against their wards by the ruling LDF in everything from fighting sea erosion to distribution of food packets from the community kitchen.
“Our elected members along with those of the UDF were ignored by the LDF in all administrative matters. Our members were even denied earth-moving equipment in the wake of sea erosion and had to meet the expenses over and above the sanctioned allocations either from their own pockets or through public donations,” said Dileep Joseph, spokesperson, Chellanam Twenty20.
Mr. Prasad denied it claiming that the governing committee was going full steam by getting the State government to sanction a special package for the panchayat and developing it into a model fishing hamlet.
