The LDF wrested the post of town planning standing committee chairman from the UDF in the Kochi Corporation in the election held on Wednesday.
Sunila Selvan, a CPI(M) councillor and the only woman member in the committee, was elected unopposed. The chairperson’s post is reserved for women.
The only solace for the UDF was the election of P.D. Martin as chairman of the welfare standing committee. Mr. Martin succeeds A.B. Sabu, who stepped down from the post on the instructions of the party district leadership.
Power sharing
With hardly eight months left for the civic administration to complete its term in office, elections were required following the power-sharing process and factional feud in the Congress.
Shiny Mathew had earlier quit the post of chairperson of the town planning standing committee as part of pressure tactics by a section of Congress leaders to force Mayor Soumini Jain out of the post.
Dissidents
Though the dissidents had been campaigning to replace Ms. Jain with Ms. Mathew, the move did not fructify as a few senior Congress leaders opposed it.
During the height of the factional feud, O.P. Sunil, a CPI(M) councillor, got elected to the town planning standing committee as two UDF councillors, the supporters of Ms. Jain, voted in his favour.
The win posted by Mr. Sunil gave the LDF the required majority in the town planning standing committee and helped Ms. Selvan’s election as chairperson of the committee.
The loyalty of Gracy Joseph, chairperson of the development standing committee, who was suspended from the party, is unknown.
Ms. Joseph invited the wrath of the party leadership after she defied the dictate to step down from the post.