DR Anil, Arya Rajendran
Thiruvananthapuram: The opposition parties have agreed to end the protest in front of the municipal corporation as the CPM decided to remove councillor DR Anil as the chairman of the public works standing committee.
The decision to end the protest was taken in an all-party meeting convened by minister for local self-government, MB Rajesh.
This will end months of deadlock in the local body caused by protests. The protesters had made the day-to-day activities of the institution difficult.
Though the decision to remove Anil is a victory for the opposition, their major demand for the resignation of mayor Arya Rajendran has not been met. The all-party meeting also decided to take a call on the resignation of Arya Rajendran based on the verdict of the High Court. The opposition also wanted Anil to resign from the councillorship. However, CPM did not agree to it.
Earlier, CPM leadership had decided to seek the resignation of Anil as the opposition was not ready to give up.
The protests erupted after two letters, allegedly written by Arya and Anil, seeking candidates to fill the temporary vacancies in the local body, to the CPM district secretary Anavoor Nagappan, surfaced.
Though Arya maintained that she never wrote any such letter, Anil said he prepared the letter signed by him but did not send it to Anavoor.
A Vigilance probe into the matter based on the complaint of Arya is underway. They have not found the original copy of the letter.