All arrangements have been made to decide the political fortune of over 10,000 candidates contesting more than 2,000 posts in the urban local bodies of the four southern districts as the votes polled in these civic bodies on last Saturday will be counted on Tuesday.
Counting of votes will start at 8 a.m. at the counting centres where three-tier security arrangements have been made. After the postal ballots are counted at 8 a.m., counting of votes polled in electronic voting machines will begin around 8.30 a.m. Most of the results are expected to be out before noon and hence the political parties’ standing in capturing the mayor or chairman posts in these local bodies will be clear by evening.
Training for the staff to be involved in counting of votes was held in Tirunelveli, Tenkasi, Thoothukudi and Kanniyakumari districts on Monday in which the steps to be followed during the counting of votes were explained in detail. The Collectors of all the four districts visited the counting centres to review the arrangements made for hassle-free counting of votes.
In Tirunelveli district, election for 55 wards of Tirunelveli Corporation, 69 wards of Vickramasingapuram, Ambasamudram and Valliyoor municipalities and 264 wards of 17 panchayats was held on last Saturday in which 1,790 candidates were in the fray for 388 councilor posts.
In Tenkasi, 2,238 candidates were in the battle of ballots for 413 posts and 1,973 candidates were in the fray for 396 posts in Thoothukudi district.
In Kanniyakumari district, 4,366 candidates are contesting 979 wards in Nagercoil Corporation, Kuzhithurai, Padmanabhapuram, Colachel and Kollencode municipalities and 51 town panchayats.
In all, 10,367 candidates were contesting for 2,126 posts in the four southern districts. Though the urban civic polls was a multi-corner contest, the real battle was between the ruling DMK and the AIADMK that lost power to its arch rival only nine months ago. While the DMK deem this poll as a referendum on its nine-month-long rule, the AIADMK expects that the voters frustrated over the Stalin-led administration would vote in its favour.
The BJP that captured Nagercoil Assembly constituency in May last is expecting a resounding victory in the maiden election held for Nagercoil Corporation. “The first mayor of Nagercoil Corporation will be a BJP candidate,” hoped a senior leader of the party.
Since the candidates, especially the contestants of the major political parties, used all sorts of strategies to lure voters, intense horse trading is expected to entice the elected councilors also to capture the mayor, deputy mayor posts of corporations, chairman and vice-chairman posts of the municipalities and the town panchayats.
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