KOCHI: The stand-off between Mayor Soumini Jain and a section of Congress leaders and Indian Union Muslim League councillors has taken a new turn, with the UDF deciding to constitute a committee to ensure “better coordination” among the front partners and officials.
The committee will have DCC president and Deputy Mayor T.J. Vinod, welfare standing committee chairman A.B. Sabu, works standing committee chairman P.M. Harris (IUML), T.K. Ashraf (IUML), and M.B. Muraleedharan (Congress) as its members. A political committee with Congress leaders from the district as its members is already functional.
A joint parliamentary party meeting of the UDF, which will be attended by all UDF MLAs from the city area, besides IUML and Congress councillors as well as Congress leaders, will be convened shortly to settle the issue.
A formal announcement of the committee will be made after the meeting. The mandate of the committee will be to look into political and administrative matters that may prop up from time to time.
There is a feeling among the Congress leadership that certain issues, which could have been sorted out in the early stages, grew out of hand for want of timely intervention, said a Congress leader.
The dissent in the ruling dispensation had come out in the open a couple of times when some standing committee chairpersons from the Congress had openly criticised the stand adopted by the Mayor on some contentious issues. The committee will strive to ensure better coordination between party councillors, civic administration and officials of the civic body, he added.
Ms. Jain and Mr. Harris had openly locked horns on the issue of reported holding back of files of telecom companies. The difference of opinion between the two had put the ruling dispensation in an uncomfortable position in the council.
Though the Congress leadership had attempted to broker peace between Ms. Jain and Mr. Harris, it did not work out.
Some Congress leaders also nursed a complaint that the Mayor was systematically sidelining the party leadership and was not heeding to suggestions from senior party leaders from the district.
However, Ms. Jain declined to comment on the developments.
