The ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and its allies on Wednesday swept the local body polls in Tamil Nadu. Elections had been held in nine districts of the southern state earlier this month on October 6 and October 9. While the results have not been announced officially, the DMK and its allies is leading in almost all the district panchayat unions and ward panchayat unions against their rival AIADMK and its allies.
"We are grateful to all of you who have won the rural local elections with the hope that the DMK government will keep its promise! Congratulations to the restless working siblings and allies - thank you!" read a tweet from Chief Minister MK Stalin roughly translated from Tamil.
The DMK has been leading since morning when the counting of votes was taken up and this in turn had set the tone for celebrations at the party headquarters. The ruling combination was also leading in the 27 wards in other districts where bypolls were held indicating a trend that the party has cemented its presence in the state after the thumping win it registered in the 2021 assembly elections.
The Opposition AIADMK appears to have suffered a setback, seemingly with a divided camp. While its ally PMK chose to contest on its own from all the nine districts, the BJP (another ally) contested alone in Kallakurichi district. Earlier, PMK leaders had said that they were contesting independently of the AIADMK and BJP as there was no time for proper discussion regarding sharing of seats and that there need not be much to read on this.
"With the victory in the rural local government elections, Tamil Nadu has a wonderful opportunity to continue on the path of development without hindrance. The Chief Minister is in the process of setting a bright future for Tamil Nadu MK Stalin. There is hope that he will continue to act," read a roughly translated tweet by KS Alagiri the President of Tamil Nadu Congress Committee.
Tamil Nadu State Election Commission has declared that out of 140 district panchayat seats, DMK won or leading on 88 seats till Tuesday late night, and its alliance partner Congress was leading in 4 seats. The rival AIADMK was leading only in 4 seats out of the 140 seats and is a clear indicator as to where the wind was blowing.
The DMK was also leading or won in 300 panchayat union wards out of a total of 1,381 wards in the nine districts where elections were held. The Congress was leading in 11 seats. Opposition AIADMK was leading or won in 50 seats out of the 1,381 panchayat union wards and its alliance partner won only 1 seat. PMK which was an alliance partner of the AIADMK in the 2021 assembly elections and contested alone in the rural local body polls was either leading or won on 13 seats. MDMK and VCK, DMK allies were leading in 8 and 3 wards respectively.
(With inputs from agencies)
(To receive our E-paper on WhatsApp daily, please click here.  To receive it on Telegram, please click here. We permit sharing of the paper's PDF on WhatsApp and other social media platforms.)
