Madurai: Even after becoming the opposition following the Assembly election, allegations have arisen that most DMK councillors in Madurai Corporation meetings are going along with the administration instead of raising their voices for public issues.
In the Madurai Corporation election, the DMK won in 67 wards, and Indrani from that party became mayor. Nagrajan of the Marxist Party became deputy mayor. Initially, the DMK members even ignored the deputy mayor by not including his name on corporation plaques. Not a single DMK councillor stood in support of him. The conflict between the Marxist Party and the DMK continued. The DMK could not elect the mayor with consensus.
So, the DMK leadership postponed the decision, saying the mayor could be appointed after the Assembly election. However, since the election result did not go in the DMK’s favor, they were unable to appoint a mayor in the corporation as they had expected. As a sudden stroke of luck for Deputy Mayor Nagarajan, he has emerged as the powerful acting mayor.
Although the majority of councillors are from the DMK and AIADMK, Deputy Mayor Nagarajan managed them in one way or another on his own and ensured that important resolutions were passed in the last three municipal council meetings as well, preventing councillors from boycotting the meetings and conducting them successfully. It is said that the DMK councillors are extending to Deputy Mayor Nagarajan the cooperation they did not give to Mayor Indrani, and are quietly going along with him behind the scenes.
It has also been alleged that in municipal corporation meetings, DMK councillors merely talk ‘politics’ and do not raise their voices on public issues. In this situation, the municipal corporation meeting is scheduled to be held on Sept. 30. The question has arisen: will DMK councillors at least now speak up for public issues and important matters?
Regarding this, some DMK councillors said: When they were in power, DMK councillors were divided into only three factions, but now they have become many factions. The municipal administration and the deputy mayor’s side are easily managing each group and successfully conducting the meetings by passing all the resolutions.
On the issue of the municipal sanitation work ‘Our Land,’ the lack of work in the wards, administrative irregularities, and public grievances, there is plenty to discuss, yet with the exception of a few DMK councillors, everyone else is under covert patronage. Even though the Commissioner and Deputy Mayor held a preparatory consultation meeting on how to conduct the municipal council meeting and how to handle the councillors, some party councillors are planning from outside what should be discussed in the meeting and what should be avoided.
Former zonal leaders who lost their posts, along with more than 20 DMK councillors, do not take part in the meeting and simply sign and leave. Because of this too, the number of people questioning them has decreased. Some DMK councillors’ conduct is against the growth of that party itself, they said.