The ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), which faced local bodies' elections earlier this week without its major allies that were with the party in the April 13 Assembly polls, has captured most of the seats in several local bodies.
Even as counting of votes was taken up on Friday morning, the party established early leads which it converted into handsome victories.
Of 10 Mayor posts in corporations, the party won in five and it is well ahead of others in the remaining five corporations. According to the State Election Commission (SEC), the ruling party has captured the post of Mayor in Vellore, Tuticorin, Erode, Tirunelveli and Tiruchi Municipal Corporations.
In Chennai, Saidai S. Duraisamy of the AIADMK has secured 12.4 lakh votes over the nearest rival, M. Subramanian of the DMK, thus bagging the post of Mayor for the first time in the history of the local body.
As at 9 p.m. on Friday, the ruling party has won in 348 of the 534 wards for which results were declared in the 10 corporations.
For the post of chairpersons in 125 municipalities, it has won in 88 and for chairpersons in 529 town panchayats (TPs), the party has emerged victorious in 283 TPs. The party has won 2,816 wards of town panchayats out of a total of nearly 8,000 wards.
The ruling party's performance in the elections to councils of most of the corporations is impressive as it has won 78 seats in Coimbatore (total: 100 wards); 37 wards in Erode (60); 71 in Madurai (100), 36 in Salem (60); 42 in Tiruchi (65) and 30 in Tirunelveli (55).
The DMK, whose tally was lower than the total number of successful independents till noon, subsequently finished second in most of the local bodies. Its overall tally of seats in the urban and rural local bodies was 3,262, which included 1,800 were town panchayat wards; 948 municipalities wards, 120 town panchayat chairpersons, 100 municipal corporations' wards and 23 municipalities' chairpersons.
The party has bagged 271 panchayat union wards.In those corporations where the results have been declared for the post of Mayors, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) finished second and the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) forfeited deposit in several corporations it contested.
In the 200-member Chennai Corporation Council, the AIADMK has won 142 wards followed by the DMK - 21; Congress - 2; Pattali Makkal Katchi, DMDK and Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam – 1 seat each and independents – 3. So far, the results for 171 wards have been announced.
