Congress rebel to head Guruvayur Municipality

In the 43-member council, the LDF has secured a simple majority of 22 with her support. The UDF has 20 members and the BJP one.

Ms Santhakumari, who retired as the head of the Sanskrit department from Sree Krishna College here, said that the LDF functionaries in Guruvayur had approached her offering the chairperson post.

Before the election on Wednesday, an agreement would be signed on her term. She was the first chairperson in the local body after it was made a municipality in 1995 and served for four-and-a-half years before a Congress rebel moved a non-confidence motion forcing her to step down.

P. K. Santhakumari

“I had curbed corruption and come up with several developmental projects during my term in the temple town. From 2000 to 2010, I was the Opposition leader of the UDF and in the 2010 local body elections, my own party workers failed me in the polls,” she said.

This time, she won with a margin of 327 votes from the college ward getting more than double the votes of her LDF opponent.

“My nomination papers were filled by the local Congress functionaries, but a couple of hours before withdrawal of nominations, I came to know that I wouldn’t be the party candidate and so I decided to contest as an independent,” she said.