The ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has bagged 66 posts in the by-elections to urban local bodies held last week.
As per the situation at 3 p.m. on Monday after several rounds of counting that began on Monday morning, the party captured the post of Mayor of Tuticorin; chairpersons in four municipalities and six town panchayats; eight ward members in municipal corporations; 20 ward members in municipalities and 27 ward members in town panchayats. Till now, the results for 79 posts were declared.
Besides, the party won in 24 panchayat union wards out of a total of 27 such wards, all of which come under the category of rural local bodies.
The two national parties, Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress, secured ward member posts in five and three places. While independents won in seven places (three municipal wards and two each of town panchayat wards and panchayat union wards), the Communist Party of India won one panchayat union ward.
For the post of Tuticorin Mayor, A.P.R. Anthony Grace of AIADMK defeated K. Jayalakshmi of the BJP by a margin of 84,885 votes. Ms Grace polled 1,16,593 votes whereas the runner-up got 31,708 votes. All other contestants forfeited deposit. Of a total electorate of about 2.83 lakh, around 1.53 lakh votes were polled.
