The ruling DMK has stamped its authority in Tamil Nadu with the party and its allies sweeping the rural local body elections held in nine districts of the state on October 6 and October 9. While the final results have yet to be announced by the State Election Commission, the DMK alliance is much ahead of rival AIADMK and its allies in almost all the district panchayat unions and ward panchayat unions.
The ruling combination was also leading in the 27 wards in other districts where bye-polls 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 Tamil Nadu State Election Commission has declared that out of 140 district panchayat seats, DMK won or is leading in 88 seats till late on Tuesday, October 12 while its alliance partner Congress was leading in 4 seats.
AIADMK was leading only in 4 out of the 140 seats, a clear indicator as to which direction 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 in 13 seats.
MDMK and VCK, DMK allies, were leading in 8 and 3 wards respectively.
Meanwhile, AIADMK has alleged that the counting of votes was 'deliberately proceeding' at a slow pace, according to a report in the The Hindu. The AIADMK's joint secretary of advocates submitted a representation before the State Election Commissioner V Palani Kumar, stating that counting of votes was being deliberately slowed down in areas where the opposition had greater chances of victory.