The counting of votes is underway following ordinary elections to rural local bodies, which were held in the nine newly-constituted districts of Tamil Nadu, showed that candidates of the ruling DMK were leading in many places for district panchayat ward member seats and panchayat union ward member seats. The manual counting process is expected to continue through the night in many places.
As of 10.20 p.m. on Tuesday, DMK candidates have won 11 of the district panchayat ward member seats and 234 panchayat union ward member seats.
Other winners
The AIADMK candidates secured 31 panchayat union ward member seats. The Congress candidates won in eight panchayat union ward member seats. The CPI(M) won three, BJP, CPI and DMDK won one each.
The counting process commenced in a total of 74 counting centres across the State at 8 a.m. on Tuesday. Over 31,200 officials were be involved in the counting of votes, and about 6,200 officials and police personnel were involved in implementing the security arrangements at the counting centres.
A total of 153 district panchayat ward member seats and 1,421 panchayat union ward member seats were contested with party affiliation and symbols.
Another 3,007 village panchayat president posts and 23,211 village panchayat ward member seats were contested without party affiliation and symbols.
The polling percentage in the two-phase ordinary elections to fill up various posts in Chengalpattu, Kallakurichi, Kancheepuram, Ranipet, Tenkasi, Tirunelveli, Tirupattur, Vellore and Villupuram districts was 77.9%.
A total of 79,433 candidates contested for 23,998 posts in these districts.
