Auto driver set to become Kumbakonam Corporation Mayor

Chennai: Closely on the heels of the news about Tamil Nadu's DMK deciding to elevate a Dalit woman to the prestigious post of mayor of the Chennai Corporation, here comes another political decision from Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu, which may hit headlines: an autodriver going to be the mayor of the newly upgraded Kumbakonam Corporation.

Congress city vice-president and autorickshaw driver K Saravanan is all set to become the mayor of Kumbakonam Corporation. He was nominated by the Congress after the DMK-led Congress allocated to it the post of mayor and let it select its nominee.

The DMK and its allies have won 42 of the 48 wards in the recent election. In the 48-member council, Congress has only two members. He will also be the first mayor of the newly formed corporation. Hailing from a traditional Congress family, Saravanan was contesting in any election, for the first time.

The DMK is the single largest party in the council with 37 members while the CPI(M), IUML and VCK have one each. AIADMK has three members, and so do Independents. The DMK members are reportedly piqued by the decision to allocate the prize post to the Congress, but the decision has been taken.

Saravanan was elected from the 17th ward of the corporation. Saravanan lives in a rented house on Thukkampalayam Street in Kumbakonam town. The mayor-designate, who has been driving an auto for living for the past eight years, lives in a rented house with his wife Devi and three sons.

The would-be mayor said that he was happy over the nomination. Saravanan, who has studied up to SSLC, said he had been operating an autorickshaw for the past eight years and hailed from an ordinary family. "I am committed to serving the people of Kumbakonam," he said to the Hindu.