Council to elect new mayor Nov 12

Thiruvananthapuram: With the district collector issuing the notification, the City Corporation council is all set to elect its new mayor. A meeting of the council has been convened on November 12 during which the contenders fielded by political fronts would be put on voting. According to sources all three fronts are likely to file nominations for the post. All 99 councillors can file nominations.

CPM councillor K.Sreekumar, who is also the health standing committee chairman, continues to top the list of nominees for the post. According to sources, CPM is the only party with a clear mandate in the council which makes it obvious that the next mayor too would be a CPM councillor. However, the CPM district committee is yet to take a final call on the party nominee officially.

"Nominations can be filed till November 11 and the council will elect its new mayor on November 12. Once the new mayor is elected the district administration would issue another notification for elections at Kazhakoottam ward," said the source. The BJP is planning to extend its support for an independent candidate from the council.

"We are not looking for an alliance with UDF. There are rumours that we are going to hold hands to bring down the LDF ruling front at the council which is baseless. We cannot have any kind of tie-up with UDF and the BJP too will file the nomination," said BJP councillor M.R. Gopan. Works standing committee chairperson and CPM's S Pushpalatha is also a likely candidate for the mayor's post. Senior CPM councillors Vanchiyoor Babu and R.P. Sivaji are among the other  contenders for the post.