Coimbatore:
Coimbatore Mayor S M Velusamy submitted his resignation letter to Coimbatore Corporation Commissioner G Latha hours after AIADMK supremo and Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa removed him from the post of Urban District Secretary on Tuesday night.
Velusamy’s resignation will be officially tabled when the Corporation council meets at 10 a.m on Friday.
“Mayor’s resignation will be placed at the Corporation Council meeting and subsequently will be sent to the Municipal Administration department after members adopt a resolution on Friday. After this, it will be decided if an election has to be conducted for the post,” said G Latha, Commissioner of Coimbatore Corporation.
“On Friday, the resignation letter will be handed over to the Deputy Mayor S Leelavathy Unni, who will execute the works of the mayor, till the next appointment is made,” she said.
An election could be conducted within a couple of months for the post, if his resignation was accepted. The election would be conducted for Coimbatore along with Tirunelvi and Tuticorin district Mayoral posts. The election for the post of Tirunelveli and Tuticorin Mayors is ecessary as Vigila Sathyanand and L Sasikala Pushpa have become Rajya Sabha members.
Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa sacked Velusamy from his Urban District Secretary post owing to his poor performance in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections in Coimbatore.
The party candidate A P Nagarajan won with a margin of 42,016 votes against BJP candidate C P Radhakrishnan in Coimbatore constituency in the recently concluded elections -- this margin is considered extremely low in the party, as compared to the performance in the other constituencies in the State.
Velusamy’s removal has been on the cards due to his autocratic attitude towards the councillors and Corporation officials in the past three years. More than 10 AIADMK councillors protested against his style of functioning and wanted to meet Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa last year in this connection.
They instead conveyed their grievances to State ministers.
The other major reason cited by the Velusamy camp is that he stepped down since his official vehicle was involved in a hit-and-run case at Palladam in Tirupur district on Tuesday. Velusamy was returning from a village after thanking voters for the Lok sabha election victory when his vehicle hit a two-wheeler. A 30-year-old youth, Chandrasekar, was injured in the mishap. However, Velusamy left immediately to attend the City Corporation South Zone meeting after instructing his supporters to help the injured.
Municipal administration and rural development minister S P Velumani will assume additional charge and take over the post of Urban District Secretary. The party supremo recently ordered Velumani to take over the post of rural district secretary replacing former Agriculture Minister S Damodaran.
