Tamil Nadu: Mayors take charge in Madurai, Trichy

MADURAI: DMK’s Indirani Ponvasanth and CPM’s T Nagarajan were elected unopposed as mayor and deputy mayor of the 51-year-old Madurai corporation on Friday.
All the 100 elected candidates were present at the grandly decorated council hall when the election of the mayor and subsequently deputy mayor was declared in the presence of finance minister P T R Palanivel Thiaga Rajan, Madurai MP Su Venkatesan among others.
Only the second female mayor in the history of the Madurai corporation, Indirani then adorned the mayor’s black robe and the 100 sovereign gold chain that is the insignia of the mayor before being handed over the silver sceptre.
Finance minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan said people had given the DMK a huge victory because the party had brought about a change in the finances and governance within a month of being in office. The Dravidian model that chief minister M K Stalin was stressing on was based on equality and social justice, and it was important that the governance was well-established at all levels.
He said the DMK’s image was being tarnished in Madurai for many years and this election, conducted in a fair manner, had changed it. Indirani Ponvasanth, who was occupying the seat previously occupied by stalwarts, would discharge her duties truthfully for the development of the city, he added.
The DMK also bagged the mayoral position in the southern districts unopposed. Ilamathi was elected mayor of Dindigul corporation and Sangeetha Inbam the first mayor of Sivakasi corporation. In Thoothukudi corporation, DMK’s N P Jagan and Jenitta Selvaraj assumed charge unopposed as mayor and deputy mayor in the presence of Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, MP and social welfare minister P Geetha Jeevan, who is also Jagan’s elder sibling. The mayor in his address announced that grievances redressal meetings will be held in all wards of the corporation.
P M Saravanan and K R Raju, the official candidates of DMK, were elected unopposed as mayor and deputy mayor respectively of Tirunelveli corporation. They assumed office after taking the oath administered by corporation commissioner B Vishnu Chandran. All four councillors of AIADMK were absent for the indirect election and the proceedings that followed.