The BJP captured the post of chairperson in 8 of the 51 town panchayats in Kanniyakumari district while losing the Nagercoil Corporation Mayor post by a whisker.
Despite the loss in the Nagercoil Corporation, the BJP has bagged the chairman posts of Thenthaamaraikulam, Ganapathipuram, Villukkuri, Vellimalai, Mandaikaadu, Eraniel, Idaikodu and Puthukkadai. Of these, the BJP has absolute majority in two town panchayats while it managed to get chairmanship in six more town panchayats with the help of independent candidates.
Moreover, the BJP councilors played a major role in deciding the winners in 2 of the 4 municipalities by supporting the rebel DMK candidates.
With the 24 councillors it bagged and the hope of getting the support of 7 Congress members and a lone MDMK councilor, the ruling DMK fielded advocate R. Mahesh, who is also DMK’s Nagercoil city secretary, as its mayoral candidate for Nagercoil Corporation, having 52 councilors. Since this collective strength of the DMK is enough for crossing the magic number of 27, it was predicted that the indirect election would be a cakewalk for Mr. Mahesh.
The BJP, though it had only 11 councilors, fielded its candidate Meena Dev in the indirect election for the post of Mayor. Though this move surprised many, the BJP was confident of getting the support of AIADMK’s 7 councilors, an Independent candidate and a few more councilors as the Congress, having 7 members, was dissatisfied after the DMK refused to give deputy mayor post to the national party.
Capitalising on this development, the BJP functionaries were reiterating that the indirect election would be ‘close call’ and would never be an easy outing for the DMK.
When the results of the indirect election for the post of Mayor was declared, the BJP candidate Meena Dev, much to the shock of the DMK, polled 24 votes, while Mr. Mahesh had got 28, just a vote more than the magic number of 27!
“As per the arithmetic, we should have got 32 votes at least. But Mr. Mahesh has polled only 28 votes while the BJP has bagged 24 votes. We expected that the BJP would get a maximum of 19 votes (BJP’s 11, AIADMK’s 7 and one Independent). However, the BJP has polled 24 votes – 5 votes more than what we expected. This was due to cross voting,” said a DMK office-bearer.
Of the 4 municipalities in Kanniyakumari district, the ‘official’ DMK candidate G. Arul Sobhan won the Padmanabhapuram municipality while the rebels defeated the ‘official’ candidates with the help of their hitherto rivals. Interestingly, the ‘rebel candidates’ could register their win with the help of BJP councilors in two municipalities!
In Colachel municipality, DMK rebel candidate A. Nazir defeated the ruling party’s official candidate Charles Johnson. After both the candidates polled 12 votes each, Nazir got elected through lot. Since the BJP, having 4 members in the 24 member council of Colachel municipality, supported Nazir, he defeated Johnson.
In Kuzhithurai municipality, DMK’s official candidate for the post of chairman Berlin Sheeba bit the dust as DMK rebel candidate Pon. Asaithambi, former chairman, became the chairman again with the support of the BJP. While Asaithambi got 12 votes, Berlin Sheeba polled only 9 votes of the 21 wards of the municipality.
Though the CPI (M) was given the chairman post of Kollencode municipality by the DMK high command, the local DMK was not in a mood to accept it as it fielded rebel candidate here too. While ‘rebel’ Rani of DMK won the indirect election with 18 votes, the CPI (M) and the BJP contestants polled 10 and 5 votes respectively.
