Thiruvananthapuram, June 3 (IANS) A panchayat president in Kerala has been asked to resign by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) -- for marrying her driver-lover. Or so she says.

 
 Minimol, who heads the panchayat in Mylom village in Kottarakara, says she has been told that her marriage has hurt the the party's image.
 
 The 25-year-old married 28-year-old Jayan, a former part-time driver in the panchayat office, May 22.
 
 Minimol, a Dalit, told IANS: "Both of us are from the same community. Our parents agreed to the marriage. We never eloped, then how can we lower the image of the party?"
 
 There is no official word on the episode from the CPI-M. Aiysha Potty, the Kottarakara legislator of the CPI-M, told IANS that she too had heard about Minimol.
 
 Minimol is not a CPI-M member per se. When she was a nursery school teacher last year, she was requested by the party if she could stand for elections to the village council. She agreed reluctantly.
 
 Later, she became the panchayat president.
 
 On May 30, eight days after she wed Jayan, the Kottarakara area committee of the CPI-M reportedly told Minimol that the party's image had suffered because of her marriage.
 
 "I was shocked," she said, adding the CPI-M has asked her to resign from the panchayat post. She said she was at a "loss to decide what needs to be done".