Chennai, Mar 4 (FN Agency) Ruling DMK nominees R Priya and M Makesh Kumar were on Friday elected unopposed as the new Mayor and Deputy Mayor of the Greater Chennai Corporation. This time the post of Chennai Mayor, which was earlier held by present DMK Chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, was reserved for dalit woman by the DMK government and Priya, a PG graduate, became the first dalit woman to hold the post. Priya, who was elected from Ward 74 in North Chennai in the recent Ordinary elections to Urban Local Bodies, was the third woman Mayor to occupy the post. Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi administered the oath of office to Priya, who is the 49th person to assume the Office of Mayor in Chennai. The ceremonial Mayoral dress dress and mace was given to her by HR and CE Minister P. K. Sekar Babu and Health Minister Ma. Subramanian, who is also a former Mayor of the Chennai Corporation. The Ministers also conducted her to the Mayoral seat in the Chennai Corporation at the Ripon buildings. Priya’s father, R Rajan, is the area co-secretary for the DMK.
Her grandfather is former MLA Chengai Sivam. Later in the afternoon, Makesh Kumar was declared elected unpposed as Deputy Mayor by the Commissioner after which he assumed office. DMK has a majority in the 200-ward Chennai Corporation Council. With 153 Councillors, DMK won the indirect elections to the mayor and deputy mayor posts of Chennai very easily. The main opposition AIADMK, which had suffered its third successive electoral setback starting from the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and 2021 Assembly polls, has only 15 Councillors. The DMK’s allies, Congress has 13 councillors, CPI(M) 4, VCK 4, MDMK 2, CPI, BJP, AMMK and IUML–one each. Five Independents were also elected as Councillors. After the newly elected members of Corporation, Municpal and Town Panchayat Ward Members assumed office on March two following their victory in the February 19 urban local body polls, indirect elections for the post Mayors and Deputy Mayors of the Corporations, the Chairpersons and Vice-chairpersons of the Municipalities and the Presidents and Vice-Presidents of the Town Panchayats were held today.
While the DMK, which won the polls with a landslide victory, faced no hitches in its candidates getting elected to the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor in various Corporations across the State, trouble arose when a few DMK nominees contested for posts in Municipalities and Town Panchayats against the official candidates of the alliance parties like Congress and VCK, who were allotted the seats by DMK, and won. As several DMK nominees have entered the fray in violating of the party directives, Mr Stalin held discussions with senior party leaders to discuss the next course of action. Meanwhile, reports from districts said there were minor skirmishes in some places, with police resorting to a mild lathi charge in Pudukottai, while the election process was affected in some other districts.