Priya Rajan, 28-year-old MCom graduate, set to be Chennai’s first Dalit woman mayor

With the indirect elections for the 1,296 posts set to take place on Friday, the DMK on Thursday nominated candidates for the posts of mayors and deputy mayors of municipal corporations, and chairperson and vice-chairperson of municipalities and town panchayats.

The party has nominated Mahesh Kumar, who was elected as the councillor from ward 169 from Perungudi zone, for the deputy mayor’s post.

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For the mayor’s post in the newly formed Tambaram corporation, Vasanthakumari Kannan, a BTech graduate in chemical engineering, has been nominated. In Madurai and Coimbatore corporations, Indhirani and Kalpana have been nominated. In Hosur, former MLA SA Sathya has been nominated for the top post.

Of the 21 corporations in the state, the DMK has nominated its party candidates for 20 of them and had allocated the mayor’s post of Kumbakonam municipal corporation to its ally, Congress. Of the total 20 mayor posts, the party has allotted 11 women and nine men.

Among the allies, the deputy mayor’s post in Madurai corporation has been allotted to CPI(M) and in Tiruppur corporation, it has been given to CPI. An MDMK candidate would be nominated for the deputy mayor’s post in Avadi corporation in Tiruvallur district. Similarly, VCK has been provided the deputy mayor’s post in Cuddalore corporation.

The state government had earlier passed orders under the Tamil Nadu town panchayats, municipalities, corporations (Delimitation of wards or Divisions and Reservations) Rules, 1996, to reserve the mayor’s post in Chennai and Tambaram Corporation for women from the Scheduled Caste community.