City Mayor demits office

Vijayawada, Oct 10: As per the pre-poll understanding between the Congress and Left combine, which contested the civic polls jointly in October 2005, City Mayor Tadi Sakuntala from the CPI submitted her resignation to the general body of Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) here last night.

The general body, which sat till 2030 hours to transact listed business, approved her resignation.

Congress candidate and 21st Division Corporator M V Ratna Bindu is tipped to succeed Ms Sakuntala as the next Mayor.

Ms Sakuntala was to resign on October 7 after completion of her one-year-tenure as Mayor, but she took two more days to bow out, ending speculation over her political moves.

She criticised the media for publishing reports about her political moves and asserted she never hankered after any post.

As part of the electoral understanding with the Congress, the CPI would hold the mayor's post for one year, Congress for the next three years and the CPI again for the last year.

The Congress-Left combine bagged 46 out of 59 divisions in the municipal corporation elections while the opposition TDP won ten divisions. Two congress rebels and a TDP rebel also emerged successful at the hustings.

A leader of the CPI-affiliated National Federation of Indian Women, Ms Sakuntala said she was happy to lead the biggest council comprising 59 corporators.

She delivered a brief thanksgiving speech from the chair, stressing that a year's tenure was not enough for anyone to deliver the goods. 'Short tenures do not help the governance of the city, as it takes six months for any Mayor to settle down. They cannot have administrative control, if they have to step down after a year.

However, I am happy that I have been received well by all sections of the people.' Ms Sakuntala's main contribution during her tenure was getting the city included in the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. Vijayawada got Rs 260 crore for construction of 15,000 pucca houses under the scheme for the urban poor.

President A P J Abdul Kalam's visit to the city was a memorable event.

UNI