Molly Jacob of the Congress was sworn in as the chairperson of the Alappuzha municipality on Friday. Independent councillor Jose Chellappan, representing the Mangalam ward, was elected vice-chairperson of the civic body.
The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), which emerged as the single largest bloc with 23 seats in elections to the municipality held earlier this month, got the support of Mr. Chellappan in the election to the chairperson post.
In the first round of voting to the chairperson post, Ms. Jacob, elected from the Beach ward, secured 24 votes in the 53-member council. Her rivals, Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate K.K. Jayamma of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] and National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate Prema Udayakumar of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), bagged 23 and five votes respectively.
The top two candidates fought it out in the second round, in which the NDA councillors stayed out. Ms. Jacob defeated Jayamma by a slender margin of one vote (24-23). In both rounds, councillor S. Faizal of the People’s Democratic Party voted for the LDF candidate, while the lone councillor of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) abstained from voting.
