TN civic polls: DMK on road to victory, setback for AIADMK

Meanwhile, the opposition AIADMK appears to have suffered a setback as the counting of votes polled in the two-phase elections began on Tuesday morning. As per the emerging trends, the principal opposition party is trailing behind the ruling DMK at several places. The DMK, which got off to an impressive start, is comfortably placed and is poised for victory.

Polling was held in 39 unions on October 6 while the remaining 35 unions went to polls on October 9, in Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu, Vellore, Ranipet, Tirupathur, Villupuram, Kallakurichi, Tirunelveli and Tenkasi districts. Elections were held to fill 27,003 posts including 140 district panchayat ward members, 74 panchayat unions, 1,381 panchayat union ward members, 2,901 village panchayat presidents and 22,581 village panchayat ward councillors.

The DMK has been leading since morning when the counting of votes was taken up and this set the tone for celebrations at Anna Arivalayam, the headquarters of the party - here. The opposition AIADMK seemed to be a divided camp in taking on the DMK combine in the polls as its ally PMK chose to contest on its own from all the nine districts and another ally, the BJP, contested alone in Kallakurichi district.

Out of the 140 district panchayat wards, the DMK is ahead of AIADMK in at least 88 seats while the opposition party was leading in two seats.

In the panchayat union wards, the DMK is leading in 331 and the AIADMK in 40.