K Sreekumar of the CPI(M) has been elected as Mayor of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation.
Sreekumar represents Chakka ward in the Corporation. He is a member of the CPI(M) Vanchiyoor Area Committee and also chairperson of the Health Standing Committee.
Sreekumar was elected with a majority of seven votes. The election to the plum post of the civic body was necessitated after former Mayor VK Prasanth got elected to the state Assembly in the bye-elections held on October 21.
The voting to elect the Mayor was held on Tuesday morning. Sreekumar beat D Anilkumar and MR Gopan, the UDF and BJP candidates respectively.
There were two rounds of voting but Anilkumar of the Congress got eliminated in the first round as he got the lowest number of votes. A total of 99 councillors voted in the first round, out of which Sreekumar got 42 votes, Gopan got 34 votes, Anil Kumar got 20 votes, while three votes were invalid.
Thiruvananthapuram is the only Corporation in the state where BJP is in the Opposition.
Sreekumar assumed charge post the voting.
The CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front has 42 members in the 100-member Corporation while the Congress-led United Democratic Front has 21 councillors and BJP has 35 members. There is one independent councillor too.
Prasanth had been representing Kazhakuttam ward in the Corporation, which has been vacant since he was elected to the Assembly.
Former Mayors and CPI(M) leaders V Sivankutty, C Jayanbabu, K Chandrika and VK Prasanth, came to congratulate Sreekumar.
