In an embarrassment for the ruling DMK, Sankarankovil Grade I Municipality chairperson Uma Maheshwari (DMK) on Wednesday was unseated through a no-confidence motion moved by AIADMK with support from councillors of her own party and its allies MDMK and Congress.
In the 30-member municipality, AIADMK has 12 councillors, DMK, 9, MDMK, 2, and Congress, 1. Besides, Independents were elected from five wards and SDPI from one.
During the election for the post of chairperson, Ms Maheshwari and her AIADMK rival Muthulakshmi polled 15 votes each. Later, Ms Maheshwari was declared elected through a draw of lots. AIADMK’s Kannan alias Raju was elected deputy chairman.
Since the third meeting of the municipality council, AIADMK councillors began levelling allegations of corruption and failure to develop urban infrastructure. Councillors of the DMK and its allies too joined hands with the AIADMK against Ms Maheshwari. The council meetings were often stormy, witnessing walk outs. A couple of meetings had to be cancelled for want of quorum.
Many councillors alleged violation of norms in allocation of tenders for contractors. In 2023, AIADMK and DMK councillors jointly moved a no-confidence motion against her. However, the DMK high command undertook damage control measures and ensured that the angry party councillors were pacified.
Against this backdrop, last month, 24 councillors from AIADMK, DMK, MDMK, Congress, SDPI and independent jointly submitted the ‘no-confidence motion’ against the chairperson with Municipality Commissioner.
This time, the DMK high command entrusted the job of pacifying the councillors with Sankarankovil MLA and DMK Tenkasi north district secretary E Raja. However, it did not yield the desired results.
On Wednesday, the no-confidence motion was put to vote at the council meeting. Commissioner (In-Charge) Nagarajan was in the chair, while Ms. Maheshwari was absent. With 28 of the 29 councillors backing the motion, Ms. Maheshwari was unseated.
The poll for electing the new chairperson will be held later.
The DMK and AIADMK councillors jointly celebrated their victory after the meeting. Some of the DMK councillors said there was an attempt to pacify them last Saturday at a party meeting. “But we were firm in our decision,” a councillor said.
Published – July 02, 2025 06:30 pm IST