• May 10, 2022

Labour loses overall control of Croydon Council: Manju retains seat, Nikhil wins, Jose loses by small margin

Nikhil on the left and Manju on the right

By A Staff Reporter

CROYDON May 9: Labour Party has lost control of Croydon Council and the authority is now under no overall control. The Labour Party won 34 seats, while the Conservative Party won 32 seats, Liberal Democrats won one and the Green Party won two seats.

Three Keralites contested in the Croydon Council election. Out of the three two have been elected and will serve in the next term as councillors.

The three candidates who contested were Manju Shahul-Hameed (Labour) from the Broad Green ward, Sherine Thampi Nikhil (Conservative) from the Old Coulsdon ward and Jose Joseph (Labour) from the Fairfield ward.

Former mayor of Croydon Council Manju Shahul-Hameed from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, has been a veteran in politics and has been a seasoned social campaigner and therefore there were no doubts with her win.

For Nikhil Sherine Thampi from Old Coulsdon it was his debut into mainstream politics.

Nikhil has been involved with various activities in his ward and surrounding wards with clean ups at St Johns church, bird sanctuary, removal of encroached ivy brambles, litter picking and clearing fallen tree debris caused by Storm Eunice to name a few.

Nikhil did his studies at University of Leicester and works as an IT manager at NHS. He lives in Coulsdon.

Joseph Jose from the Fairfield ward lost by a very small margin to his closest contestant who was from the Green Party. Joseph Jose lost by 30 votes.

Joseph Jose from Alappuzha in Kerala, lost by 30 votes to rival candidate from Green Party.

It is the first time every the Greens have won seats on Croydon Council and the party’s Ria Patel and Esther Sutton will join Labour councillor Chris Clark to represent the Fairfield Ward.