Deepak Joy resigned as the councillor and deputy mayor of Kochi Corporation on Wednesday (May 13, 2026) following his election as the MLA from the Tripunithura Assembly constituency.

Mr. Joy, a two-time councillor, submitted his resignation to Corporation secretary P.S. Shibu at the Corporation headquarters. This was followed by a farewell at the council hall.

During his brief tenure, Mr. Joy, representing the Ayyappankkavu division, had presented the first budget of the newly elected United Democratic Front governing committee as chairperson of the finance standing committee. He defeated K.N. Unnikrishnan of the Left Democratic Front in Tripunithura by over 18,000 votes.

Mr. Shibu said both vacancies, that of councillor and deputy mayor, were immediately reported to the State Election Commission, as per norm. He added that a by-election to fill the vacancy must be held within six months.

Meanwhile, the Congress will also have to identify a replacement for Mr. Joy as deputy mayor. However, this is likely only after the prolonged parleys within the party over the selection of the chief minister candidate conclude.

Ernakulam District Congress Committee president Mohammed Shiyas, who has also been elected as Kochi MLA, remains preoccupied. The DCC is expected to take a call on Mr. Joy’s successor as deputy mayor.

Congress had given split terms of two-and-a-half years each to Mr. Joy and K.V.P. Krishnakumar. A similar split-term arrangement is also in place for the mayor’s post, with Congress councillors V.K. Minimol and Shiny Mathew sharing the position.

Whether a new councillor will be appointed deputy mayor or Mr. Krishnakumar’s term will be advanced remains to be seen. Congress sources indicated that the latter development was unlikely, but clarified that the final decision would be taken by the DCC in consultation with the Congress parliamentary party.

Initially, UDF constituent Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) staked a claim to the deputy mayor’s post for a year. The IUML also expressed displeasure over the manner in which the Congress district leadership overlooked its claim and unilaterally announced two candidates for the post under a split-term arrangement.

The claim was eventually rejected, primarily due to Congress’s strong performance, which alone secured sufficient councillors in the 76-member Corporation. Subsequently, IUML’s potential nominee for the deputy mayor’s post, T.K. Asharaf, was accommodated as chairperson of the works standing committee.