Kottayam: CPM’s Josin Bino was elected the new chairperson of the Pala Municipality after the election held at 11 am on Thursday. She won 17 votes in the election. Out of the 26 members, 25 voted at the election. 

The decision was arrived at after the party changed its initial decision to field Binu Pulickakandam following the objections raised by Kerala Congress (M).

The Left party created history by taking over the chairperson’s seat in Pala for the first time. The decision to nominate Josin was taken in a CPM Area Committee meeting with just a couple of hours to go for the election. 

Initially, the CPM wanted to field Binu Pulickakandam, the lone councilor who had won on the party symbol, for the post.

However, the KC (M) raised strong objections to this. Binu had earlier assaulted the KC(M) leader Baiju Kollamparambil at the municipality hall, the video of which went viral on social media.

The CP(M) has only six councilors, including Binu.

The agreement between the two parties was that the KC(M) will hold the chairperson post for the first two years before handing it to CPM for the next one year.

The chairperson post will be returned to KC(M) for the last two years of the tenure of the coalition. KC(M) leader Anto Padinjarekkara was the Chairman for the initial two years.

There was an intense dispute between CPM and Kerala Congress (M) over the chairperson at Pala Municipality. Kerala Congress (M) chairman Jose K Mani himself came out against CPM, making Binu Pulickakandam as the chairperson. Kerala Congress (M) says it will recognize anyone other than Binu.

The first two-year term of the chairperson ended on December 28 last year. On that day itself, the chairperson from Kerala Congress (M) resigned. It was after this that the dispute arose over who will become the chairperson from the CPM.

Binu Pulickakandam protests 

Binu reached the municipality on the election day wearing black, however, he initially told the media the clothes are not worn to protest the decision. "Our party is not against the colour black. I respect Josin and will work hand-in-hand with her," he said. He also said that he wants to reveal a few things to the media. Binu wrote an open letter to Jose K Mani, ridiculing him and CPI, reported Manorama News. He apparently said in the letter that the election day was a black day for Pala, on which the hearts of many comrades were broken. Binu also said that he will only wear black, anytime he has to work with Jose K Mani.