Panchayat union president ousted, AIADMK MLA leads protest in Salem

Ten council members including two AIADMK members voted in support of the no-confidence motion against president K Jaganathan. Of the total 13 ward council members, eight members had moved the motion way back in last year itself.

However, Jaganathan prayed for a direction from the High Court to quash a notification issued by the Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) citing it was against the Tamil Nadu Panchayat’s Act, 1944.

The court then ordered an interim stay on the impugned notice issued by the RDO, Salem to conduct the panchayat union council meeting on 20 December.

After the court vacated the stay, the no-confidence motion was passed successfully against K Jaganathan, who was removed from the post of panchayat union president. With the post going vacant now, a new president is likely to be chosen soon.

Before the start of the council meet, the AIADMK MLAs M Rajamuthu, AP Jayasankaran, Sundararajan, A Nallathambi along with panchayat union president Jaganathan and party workers staged a protest at the Salem district collector office premises alleging that two AIADMK women members of the council were kidnapped by DMK men. They also submitted a petition in this regard.

However, the two women ward members, who turned up for the council meeting, claimed that they were not kidnapped by anyone and extended their support for the no confidence motion.