KAKINADA: Telugu Desam rebel corporator Sunkara Siva Prasanna was elected as Mayor on Monday with full support of the YSR Congress, replacing Mayor S Pavani of the Telugu Desam.
YSRC 24th division corporator Uday Kumar was elected as deputy mayor -1 in place of Kala SB Sathibabu. Joint collector Lakshmisha conducted the elections on Monday as per advice of the Election Commission. Siva Prasanna’s name was proposed by BJP rebel corporator Sujatha and the deputy mayor -2 Chodipalli Satya Prasad.
TD Rebel corporator Chavvakula Rambabu and BJP rebel Corporator Godi Satyavathi proposed the deputy mayor-2 candidate. As many as 36 members including Kakinada MP Vanga Gita, agriculture minister Kurasala Kannababu (Kakinada rural MLA) and Kakinada MLA D Chandrasekhara Reddy participated in the programme. When the corporators proposed names for the mayor and deputy mayor, no other names came up. Joint collector announced that Siva Prasanna and Uaday Kumar were elected unanimously as mayor and deputy mayor.
Later in the day, Siva Prasanna was sworn in as Mayor. She thanked Kakinada MLA Chandrasekhara Reddy and others for their support. She would make efforts to develop Kakinada under the guidance of Chandrasekhara Reddy, Kannababu and Gita, she said.
The 10 Telugu Desam corporators have not participated in the election. They said the Mayor issue is in court’s purview and hence they would not attend such elections.
The Kakinada Municipal Corporation election was held in 2017 for 48 divisions out of the total 50. TD and BJP contested the election in an alliance format. As many as 32 TD, 10 YSRC and 3 BJP corporators won the polls apart from three Independents. Later, three corporators died and one YSRC corporator resigned from the post.
After the YSRC came to power in the state in 2019, some 22 TD corporators turned rebels and supported the YSRC. After completion of a four-year term of the corporation, the previous mayor S Pavani and deputy mayor Kala Sathibabu were ousted from the posts by way of a no-confidence motion. Pavani approached the court seeking justice. The court adjourned the case for two weeks on Monday.
