Urban local body polls: Early leads in southern districts indicate landslide victory for DMK

AIADMK leads in Sivakasi Corporation; BJP opens account in Nagercoil Corporation

Counting of votes for the urban local body elections which commenced at 8 a.m. across the 10 southern districts of Tamil Nadu at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, indicated that the ruling DMK and its allies are set to emerge victorious in many of the Corporation, Town Panchayat and Municipal wards.

The AIADMK has performed better than the DMK in Sivakasi Corporation, according to the leads coming in as of 10 a.m., while the BJP opened its account in the Nagercoil Corporation ward, with a win. The NTK, DMDK, MNM and others were yet to gain significant leads in any ward. South Tamil Nadu comprises Madurai, Dindigul, Theni, Virudhunagar, Ramanathapuram, Sivaganga, Thoothukudi, Tenkasi, Tirunelveli and Kanniyakumari districts. There are six Corporations including Madurai, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi and Dindigul respectively. Nagercoil and Sivakasi, which were upgraded, are also Corporations. The first two hours of counting since 8 am, showed that the two Dravidian majors -- DMK and the AIADMK polled the most number of votes between them. In Dindigul Corporation, out of the 14 wards for which leads were available as of 10 a.m., the DMK and its allies were leading in 12 wards, AIADMK and BJP were leading in one each. Senior AIADMK leader and former Minister Dindigul C. Srinivasan’s son Rajmohan was leading in his ward at 10 a.m. over the DMK candidate. In Kodaikanal Municipality, the DMK was leading in wards 1, 3, 6 and 7, while the AIADMK was leading in wards 2 and 4. In Tirunelveli district, after the AIADMK candidate Usha and BJP’s Munivel of Ward 4 of Panagudi Town Panchayat polled 266 votes each, Munivel was elected through a draw of lots. In Thoothukudi Corporation, the DMK has won in wards 1, 3, 4, 5, 6,7,8,9,11,12,13 and 15. The AIADMK has won in ward 10 and Independents won in wards 2 and 14. In Nagercoil Corporation, out of the nine wards for which results have been declared so far, the DMK bagged eight and the, BJP emerged as the winner in one ward. In Madurai Corporation, which has 100 wards, the DMK alliance won in six wards including one each from the MDMK and VCK, while the AIADMK showed leads in five wards. In ward 2, Amudha Muthuperkiniyan of the DMK had polled 3,511 votes out of the total votes of 5013. All other contestants had lost their deposits, officials said. In Sivakasi Corporation, which has 48 wards, the AIADMK had taken a slender lead by winning in 6 out of the first 10 wards for which results were declared. The DMK has secured four seats. In Ramanathapuram, the officials had declared results in 14 wards in Ramanathapuram Municipality so far and the AIADMK had won one, Congress two, AMMK one and the DMK emerged victorious in 9 wards and one Independent had won. In Sivaganga, officials said that in Devakottai Municipality, out of the eight wards for which results were declared so far, the Congress had 3, AIADMK 3 and the AMMK won in two wards.