Chennai: The Congress has done well in the Tamil Nadu local body elections. With candidates winning 592 seats, the Congress has become the third largest single party. This election is also a testament to the strength of the Congress in a state rooted in the Dravidian parties DMK and Anna DMK. The BJP, meanwhile, lost 308 seats.
Congress candidates won in 73 wards out of 21 city corporations. 151 won to various municipalities. The Town Panchayat has 368 candidates. The Congress has joined the DMK, led by Chief Minister MK Stalin.
The Congress has a clear lead over the BJP, even if it examines only the local bodies. If the Congress got 73 seats in the city corporations, the BJP could win only 22 seats. The DMK, which won 952 seats, is the largest single party in the corporation. AIADMK came in second with 164 seats. The CPM is in fourth place with 24 seats. The CPI (M) won 13 seats and the Muslim League six.
The BJP came fourth while the Congress retained the third position in the municipalities. The Congress has 151 seats, the BJP 56, the CPM 41, the CPI 19 and the Muslim League 23. The DMK, which won the most seats, won 2360 seats. 638 left AIADMK.
In the town panchayat where the highest number of seats were contested, the Congress won 368 seats while the BJP won only 230 wards. DMK won 4388 seats and AIADMK 1206 seats. The BJP won most of the seats in Kanyakumari district, which is not dominated by Dravidian parties.
Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi and former Union Minister P.S. Leading candidates, including Chidambaram, were campaigning for the post.
Smaller parties like PMK, Naam Tamilar Katchi, Kamal Haasan’s sons Neethi Mayyam, Vijayakanth’s DMDK and TTV Dinakaran’s AMMK did not benefit. The PMK, which contested alone, won five corporation wards, 48 municipal seats and 73 town panchayat wards. In Orathanadu town panchayat, AMMK won the majority. They won three corporation seats, 33 municipal seats and 66 town panchayat seats.
DMDK could not win any corporation seat. But it won 12 municipal seats and 23 town panchayat seats. The SDPI won one seat in the Coimbatore Municipal Corporation, five municipal wards and 16 town panchayat wards. Of the corporations, 73 independents won.
Elections were held for 649 local bodies, including 21 municipal corporations, 138 municipalities and 490 town panchayats. Out of a total of 12,607 seats, 57,778 were in the fray.