No stopping AIADMK, all set to sweep TN civic polls

No stopping AIADMK, all set to sweep TN civic polls
Chennai, Oct 21 : The ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu, which came to power after a landslide victory in the April 2011 Assembly elections, continued its sway in the Local Body Elections also as it was set to capture all the ten Corporations and a majority of Municipalities, Town Panchayats and Panchayat Unions.

When counting of votes polled in the two phase local body elections held on October 17 and 19 were taken up this morning, it became clear that the ruling AIADMK was emerging as a winner, pushing far behind the opposition DMK and other parties. The AIADMK re-established its strength and power in electoral politics, winning or establishing leads in all the Corporations and in a majority of Municipalities, Town Panchayats and Panchayat Unions and Wards without the support of the alliance parties.

For the first time, direct elections were held for the Mayoral Posts of Corporations and Chairmen posts of Municipalities and Town Panchayats and the AIADMK was all set to win a majority of these local bodies. The Party came out with flying colours as it was set to capture all the ten Corporations, including Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore, Salem, Erode, Tiruppur, Tirunelveli, Tuticorin, Tiruchirapalli and Vellore. The AIADMK made impressive performance both in the urban and rural local bodies.

It won or established leads in about 100 of the 125 Municipalities and more than 200 of the 529 Town Panchayats and Panchayat Unions.





The Local body elections, which witnessed multi-cornered contests as all major political parties chose to fight it on their own, exposed the "strenghts" of National parties like, the Congress, BJP, CPI(M), CPI and regional parties, which had been fighting the elections in alliance with either one of the Dravidian Parties, the AIADMK or the DMK.

The DMDK, led by Actor Vijayakanth, which forged alliance with the AIADMK for the first time in the April Assembly polls and fought the local body polls on its own, was thoroughly exposed as it could win only the Cuddalore Municipality, while leading in one more. When the fledgling party secured the status of the Main Opposition party winning 29 seats in the Assembly elections, pushing the DMK to the third place, it was widely speculated that the DMDK contributed a lot to the victory of AIADMK in the Assembly polls, but the Local body results proved it as a myth.

The Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), which too fought the elections independently after declaring that it would never forge alliance with AIADMK and DMK in future, also came a cropper, leading in only one Town Panchayat. Surprisingly, the Congress, which had to severe ties with the DMK, managed to establish leads in seven Town Panchayats. The MDMK, which walked out of the AIADMK alliance and boycotted the Assembly elections, also made some impressive performance, leading in three Town Panchayats.

The Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), which became an "untouchable" after the AIADMK severed ties with the party after the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, was also making its presence felt as it is set to win four Town Panchayats in the southern Kanniyakumari District. The CPI(M), which forged an alliance with the DMDK in the last minute, after being shown the door by the AIADMK, managed to establish leads in two Town Panchayats, while the CPI in one.

The AIADMK's victory comes a day after it retained the Tiruchirapalli (West) Assembly seat, trouncing DMK candidate and former Minister K N Nehru in the by-elections, but the celebrations were low key as party Supremo and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa is appearing before the Bangalore Special Court for the second day today. A group of partymen celebrated the victory by bursting crackers and distributing sweets at the party headquarters, while Ms Jayalalithaa's Poes Garden Residence area wore a deserted look.

The DMK headquarters, Anna Arivalayam, also wore a deserted look. The results and trends of the Local body elections proved that the AIADMK held a sway over the people and it could have come to power, had it contested the Assembly elections even on its own. The erstwhile AIADMK allies, especially, Vijayakanth's DMDK, CPI(M) and CPI should owe their victories to the AIADMK, if the outcome of the local body elections was any indication. The results and trends of the Local body elections also served a severe blow to the opposition DMK as it failed to capture a single Corporation. The party was leading only in about 80 of the 529 Town Panchayats and 23 of the 125 Municipalities.