The AIADMK, which has always counted the western districts among its strongholds, was in for a surprise on Thursday, when the trends of the rural local body polls indicated that it was not sweeping the region.
The party’s alliance with the PMK and the BJP, both of which have reasonable influence in certain pockets of the region, has not helped it outshine its arch-rival DMK, if trends as of Thursday night are anything to go by. Considering that the western districts have influential politicians like Local Administration Minister S.P. Velumani and School Education Minister K.A. Sengottaiyan, besides Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami himself, the AIADMK’s second-line functionaries said they had expected better results. Though the results in certain districts indicated that the AIADMK was ahead, the DMK managed to establish leads in a reasonable number of wards.
Elections were conducted in all rural local bodies in Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Nilgiris, Erode, Salem, Namakkal, Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri. In Namakkal district, Yuvaraj, son of AIADMK legislator Chandrasekaran, who contested the post of Nadukombai village panchayat president, lost the election by four votes. Demanding a recount, Yuvaraj and his supporters staged a protest at the counting centre for Sendamangalam panchayat union. By evening, in Salem, the Chief Minister’s native district, the AIADMK established its lead in many wards.
Though no untoward incident was reported in most of the counting centres, there was a problem at the centre for the Sulur panchayat union in Coimbatore.The counting began after the intervention of District Collector K. Rajamani, who said the seals on ballot boxes had not been tampered with, and the gunny bags did not matter at all.
As of 6 p.m., the Coimbatore district administration had declared results for 25 of the 155 panchayat union wards that went to the polls. And, of those, the AIADMK won 15 union wards, the DMK - 9 and Independent - 1.
