Şişli Mayor Sarıgül to meet CHP deputy head in Istanbul

ISTANBUL

Şişli Mayor Mustafa Sarıgül is set to meet CHP deputy head Adnan Keskin today and is expected to hand in a petition to rejoin the party. Speculation is rife that Sarıgül will be nominated as the party's candidate for the Istanbul mayoral elections. DHA photo

Mustafa Sarıgül, the mayor of the Istanbul district of Şişli, will meet the Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy head today and is expected to hand in a petition to rejoin the party, private broadcaster CNN Türk has reported on its website.

CHP deputy head Adnan Keskin will meet Sarıgül at the Şişli municipality at noon today, accompanied by CHP Istanbul branch head Oğuz Kaan Salıcı.

Sarıgül is expected to submit a petition to return to the party, in order to become the CHP’s Istanbul mayoral candidate in the March 2014 local elections.

The CHP’s discipline committee had expelled Sarıgül from the party in 2005 on the grounds that he had turned the party congress into an environment of violence, during an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the then CHP leader Deniz Baykal. Sarıgül had opened a case against his expulsion, but the committee’s decision was eventually confirmed.

The return of Sarıgül is expected to be discussed at the party’s main administrative board, before being discussed and voted on at the upcoming CHP party assembly, which will be held on Nov. 3.