Manapparai, Ariyalur tie resolved as independents support DMK

The twist and turns were visible after the urban local body polls in the region as independent candidates elected from Manapparai and Ariyalur municipalities met Ministers and extended their support to DMK with which the party could earn a majority to form the council.

The candidate selection by the Dravidian majors of AIADMK and DMK for the urban local body polls was a heavy task before the leaders in charge of their respective regions, especially in DMK and this led to dissatisfied cadres to contest as independent candidates in many areas which paved a spoil sport for the official party candidates. It resulted in 27-ward Manapparai  Municipality facing a tie as both AIADMK and DMK alliance secured 11 wards each while the independents won in five wards (AIADMK- 11, DMK- 8 wards, CPI- 2 and Congress -1). As both the parties had equal number of seats, independent members had played a deciding factor in forming the council.

While the leaders of both the DMK and AIADMK had camped to bargain with the independents, all the five independent candidates – P Mani (ward 3), A Francis Xavier (ward 9), M Vasantha Devi (ward 14), S Vijayalakshmi (ward 15) and J Aiysha Ghani (ward 21) met Local Administration Minister KN Nehru and extended their support to the DMK on Wednesday.

Nehru who had sent a feeler to these independent candidates received them and thanked them for their timely turning back to the party. This has improved the strength to DMK which is poised to form the council.

Meanwhile, in 18-ward Ariyalur Municipality the same situation prevailed as DMK and AIADMK could secure seven each while independents won in four wards. However, on Wednesday, three out of four independent candidates met the Minister SS Sivasankar and expressed their support to DMK and this enabled the DMK to form the council in Ariyalur Municipality too.