Corp Council accepts resignatons of 97 councillors

Chennai, Jan 25 (UNI) The Chennai Corporation Council today accepted the resignation of Mayor Ma Subramanian and 97 other councillors, who had stepped down on the directive of DMK President and Chief Minister M Karunanidhi following the Madras High court's split verdict ordering repoll in 99 wards.

The council, in a brief meeting, presided over by Deputy Mayor R Sathyabama, took on record the resignations of the 98 councillors and completed the formalities.

Mr Armstrong of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), whose ward also figured in the list of 99 wards, ordered for repoll, refused to resign his seat. He attended today's meeting. In all, 53 councillors attended today's meeting.

The council also recorded two Bills passed by the Tamil Nadu assembly, one paving way for Mayor and Deputy Mayor to seek re-election after resigning thier posts and the other, making it mandatory for the council to meet at least once in a month.

These councillors had resigned on January 18, a day after Mr Karunanidhi had issued a directive to this effect, after the High court's split verdict on January 12.

The council meeting, scheduled for last week to accept the resignations was postponed for want of quorum. The presence of at least 51 councillors was required for holding the council meeting.

As already two AIADMK councillors had resigned, protesting against the violent incidents during the October polling, the total number of vacancies in the Corporation is 100.

Once the Corporation formally writes to the State Election Commission, giving details of the vacancies, the Commission is expected to set in motion, the process of holding fresh elections.

Meanwhile, the opposition AIADMK moved the High court, seeking a direction to restrain Mr D Chandrasekaran from functioning as state Election Commissioner.

UNI