All zonal chairpersons’ posts in GCC go to DMK

The ruling DMK in Greater Chennai Corporation held its sway, winning all chairperson posts to zonal councils, elections to which were held on Wednesday.

Though most of the zonal committee chairpersons have been elected unopposed, there was much drama before the fate of the Perungudi zone chairman post was decided. Here, KPK Sathishkumar (Ward 182) of AIADMK was pitted against SV Ravichandran (Ward 184) of DMK.

Once councillors from the zone voted and when officials were about to open the ballot box, Sathishkumar objected to counting citing that the councillors carried their mobile phones while voting and they would have taken pictures of their ballot papers. Infuriated Ravichandran and other DMK members opposed the claim saying none of them took photos.

After Sathishkumar gave a written complaint, Chennai Corporation Commissioner and District Election Officer Gagandeep Singh Bedi deferred the counting and ordered an indirect election for the Sholinganallur zone after which the DMK candidate won unopposed.

After referring rule book, Bedi announced a repoll for the Perungudi zone to ‘ensure fairness of the election.’ Of the 11 votes, Ravichandran secured eight and Sathishkumar three.

During the afternoon session, indirect polls for standing committees were held to elect 15 members to each of the five committees. As per reservation, each committee elected eight women and seven male members.

Earlier, insufficient women members filed papers for some committees following which Minister PK Sekar Babu held a closed-door discussion with councillors after which women members came forward to contest.