CHENNAI: "I have nothing to declare except my genius." No, Chennai mayor Saidai S Duraisamy did not say that, but he came close to Oscar Wilde on Tuesday when he presented the report cards of the last three mayors, himself included.

Presenting what he called a promise-delivery rating, Duraisamy gave a bare pass score of 41 out of 100 to his predecessor M Subramanian. M K Stalin, the mayor between 1996 and 2002, flunked with just 37 marks. And then, the incumbent gave himself a score of 93.55.

For those left scratching their heads, the mayor was helpful with some numbers: Of the 419 projects the present AIADMK regime announced in the budget, 392 were "taken up" in the last four years., he said. Floating tenders for a project, according to the candidate-cum-examiner, qualified for the project being "taken up" and hence the score. But that rule doesn't apply to the others who had to complete the projects to earn mayoral merit.

More math: "We have dropped only 27 projects," said Duraisamy. "Stalin, who took up 159 projects, completed only 60, and that constitutes 37.73%. Subramanian managed to complete 41.75% of the 606 projects. In the ten years of DMK completed only 39.74% of the projects announcements".

So how many projects did Duraisamy's regime, which "took up" 392 projects, complete? Not a word. With not much opposition, he went on. "Stalin and Subramanian together completed 17,904 pieces of work; and I 38,401. I attended 5,942 public meetings compared to Stalin's 447 and Subramanian's 790 meetings," the man in the gown said without attribution to any source.

Public reaction, meanwhile, varied from sarcasm to anger. Some listed out roads that have remained dirt tracks for years, many others pointed to stinking garbage.

Former bureaucrat and convenor of Chennai-based Forum for Electoral Integrity M G Devasahayam said: "If Saidai Duraisamy has completed 93% of the work, he can retire now. It may be invisible work as people don't see anything."

Jayaram Venkatesan, convenor of Arappor Iyakkam, an NGO that works for transparency in governance, said many projects remain on paper. "The civic body should implement sou motu disclosure under Section 4 of RTI Act and disclose all project details on its website," he said.

Former mayor M Subramanian said he was ready for a public debate with Duraisamy. "Much of the city's infrastructure was built by the DMK regimes. Having failed on all fronts, he is blaming us now. I am ready for a television debate, even on his party channel," Subramanian said.

Back in the council, Duraisamy was reeling out more numbers. "I have met 6.1 lakh people in four years and received 3.88 lakh complaints through phone, letters, email and newspapers. We've addressed the complaints," said Duraisamy.

The mayor smiled when AIADMK councillors clapped. And he turned angry when some DMK members shouted, "lies." Check the records, he told them. The DMK members had had better ideas-like walking out of the council.