DMK increases overall show by 6 per cent in civic polls

In a setback to the ruling AIADMK alliance, several districts considered to be their stronghold witnessed shifting of voters migrating to the archival DMK. DMK comfortably won 14 district councils and the AIADMK scraped through to retain 13 districts. Sivaganga, which was with AIADMK went for a tie. In Dharmapuri and Cuddalore, the PMK helped the ruling party toperform better.

Going by the vote share, the DMK has surpassed the ruling AIADMK by 6 per cent. As per the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission vote share figures the DMK secured 38.47 per cent votes against the ruling AIADMK with 32.06 per cent. In 2011, the AIADMK led by Jayalalithaa had a strike rate of 60 per cent in rural areas consolidating the vote banks in gram panchayats and panchayat unions.

As per the latest reports from TNSEC, the DMK alliance won more than 2,346 union council posts of the total 5,090 panchayat union councils.

The AIADMK alliance recorded a victory in 2,182 union councils. In the case of district council member posts, initially, it was a close fight between the AIADMK and the DMK. But when the counting was almost over for 98 per cent of booths covering 515 district council seats, the DMK took a lead bagging 267 seats was followed by AIADMK with 243 seats.

The indirect elections to the chairman posts of rural local bodies will be on January 11. Through the elections, TNSEC had filled 69,900 posts for which the polls were conducted without any political party affiliation.

Meanwhile, TNSEC Commissioner R Palaniswami on Friday reiterated that the poll process was executed in a free and fair manner. He also denied the allegations levelled by the Opposition leader MK Stalin.

According to AIADMK insiders, the AMMK had also affected the prospects of the ruling party in few pockets. “The rebel AMMK had played spoilsport for AIADMK in Delta region comprising Tiruchy, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur and Pudukkottai. The AMMK also dented the Madurai vote bank of AIADMK helping the DMK to win the district,” said an AIADMK senior adding that the party could have done better if the sulking AMMK and AIADMK are merged.

“Without a common symbol, the AMMK had successfully won 94 union council seats opening account in 24 of the 27 districts where polls were conducted,” said Sukumar Babu, AMMK south Chennai district secretary. This is a morale boost for our party. Our rivals and pundits cannot write off our party and our leader Dhinakaran will set the pace for 2021 general Assembly polls, Sukumar Babu said. Further, both the AIADMK and the DMK induced voters and the ruling party misused the official machinery, but AMMK fought with candidates on different independent symbols. Our vote share is intact at gram panchayats and panchayat unions, Sukumar Babunoted.

“The opposition parties, including the DMK has been demanding civic polls crying foul against the AIADMK government alleging that the ruling party was fearing a rout after the demise of AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa. Jayalalithaa is a vote bank and her demise is certainly a loss to the ruling AIADMK,” opined political commentator R Mani.

Further, this is the first straight election between the AIADMK and the DMK on local issues. Now the TNSEC should hold the elections for the other municipal local bodies and the nine districts where polls are withheld due to revenue delimitation exercise.