Ottappalam Municipality Vice-chairman quits

PALAKKAD: Ottappalam municipality vice-chairman P M A Jaleel resigned just minutes before the no-confidence motion was to be tabled by the opposition LDF in the council on Monday. Earlier, municipal chairperson Rani Jose of the Congress was voted out in a no-confidence motion tabled by the CPM on Saturday.Jaleel had announced his intention to resign after the UDF lost its majority in the council. He later submitted his resignation to municipal secretary K N Krishnankutty. Minutes before the no-confidence motion was to be tabled, director of Urban Development Affairs T M Mohammed Sheriff announced that there was no need for tabling a no-confidence motion as Jaleel had put in his papers.Subsequently, the CPM councillors and other activists led by parliamentary party leader C Sreekumaran and former chairman E Ramachandran took out a rally through Ottapalam town for having disloged the UDF council. Meanwhile, Congress block president Sathyan Perambracode has asked the three dissident Congress councillors - Selvan, Parukutty and K Babu - to resign their council membership, which they had won on a UDF ticket, and contest the elections again. He said the Congress would resort to legal recourse against the dissident councillors for violating the whip to abstain from voting.