Chennai, Feb 24 (BPNS)

The extent of drubbing the AIADMK has faced in the urban local body polls can be understood over the fact that the only municipality which will be ruled by the opposition party is Sengottai out of the 138 municipalities in the state where elections were held.

In Sengottai, out of the 24 wards, DMK could win only 7 seats while AIADMK won 10, PMK 2 and BJP 3 seats. 2 independent candidates could emerge victorious. Even with the support of 2 independents, DMK will fall short of the 13 numbers required for the municipal chairman post. This leads to Sengottai becoming the only municipality in the state where the DMK could not win.

It is to be noted that DMK and its allies crossed the simple majority in 135 out of the 138 municipalities in the state in the urban local body elections. The exceptions to this were Manapparai, Vandavasi, and Sengottai.

In Manapparai, of the 27 wards, AIADMK and DMK won 11 wards each, and 5 went to independent candidates. On Wednesday DMK leader and state minister, K.N. Nehru met the five independent councilors and secured their support thus paving the way for a DMK municipal chairman and vice-chairman.

The DMK alliance won 9 seats in Vandavasi while the AIADMK and PMK could win only 3 and 2 wards respectively. Independents won 10 seats. State PWD minister, E.V. Velu who is in charge of the constituency met the independent councilors and secured their support thus leading to a DMK municipal chairman in Vandavasi.

There are 12,818 ward member posts in Tamil Nadu from 21 corporations, 138 municipalities, and 489 town panchayats. Of these, the DMK alliance won 8757 seats and in all the 21 corporations party candidates could win more than 50 percent of the seats available.

The DMK alliance is expected to take over the administration of 435  to 445 town panchayats out of a total of 489 town panchayats.