oppn parties Tamil Nadu Civic Polls: Big Win For DMK

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  • AAP's Jalandhar-West MP Sushil Kumar Rinku joins the BJP. He was the only AAP Lok Sabha MP
  • Supreme Court dismisses Centre's plea to review its 2023 verdict in the PMLA case
  • Close save for passengers as they remain unhurt after the wings of two planes graze at Kolkata airport. Pilots derostered and inquiry ordered by DGCA
  • Bengal BJP leader Dilip Ghosh gets notice from the EC as well as the BJP for making ugly remarks about Mamata Banerjee's parentage
  • Sadanand Vasanth Date, who faught terrorists in the 26/11 attack and was awarded the Preisent's Police medal, has been appointed the head of the NIA
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  • Stocks recover smartly on Wednesday: Sensex rises 526 points to 72996 and Nifty 118 points to 22123
  • Tennis: Rohan Bopanna-Matthew Ebden reached the semifinals of the Miami Open
Delhi Lt Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena says government cannot be run from jail, hints at President's Rule in the capital ////// In a dangerous incident, the wings of two planes grazed while taxiing on the runway at Kolkata airport, all passengers were safe but DGCA ordered an inquiry and the pilots were derostered
oppn parties
Tamil Nadu Civic Polls: Big Win For DMK

By Linus Garg
First publised on 2022-02-23 06:02:24

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.

The ADMK slide continues unabated in Tamil Nadu. It ceded further space to DMK in the civic election in the state, allowing the ruling party to win more than two-thirds of the civic wards in all the 21 municipal corporations and gained a majority in most of the 138 municipalities and 490 town panchayats. The ADMK was a distant second with only 15% wards. Surprisingly, the BJP performed better than expected and was ahead of other regional players.

This was a huge victory for the DMK and proved that the party has reestablished itself in the urban areas after the death of patriarch M Karunanidhi. On the other hand, it also proved that the ADMK has lost the people's confidence after Jayalathitha's demise and the internal squabbling that resulted. The DMK has gained as M K Stalin was seen as a clear successor to Karunandhi but there was no such person in the ADMK.

The biggest gain for the DMK was in western Tamil Nadu, which includes the industrial town of Coimbatore, considered a citadel of ADMK. It also won in the home turf of ADMK leaders like former chief minister K Palaniswami and senior leader O Panneerselvam. The DMK has won 946 wards in corporations, 2360 in municipalities and 4388 in town panchayats, completing its dominance of Tamil politics now.

This crushing defeat is likely to renew the calls for sweeping changes in the ADMK. The leadership of Palaniswami and Paneerselvam, who have kept an uneasy truce between them, is likely to be challenged once more. Sashikala is also waiting in the wings and it will not surprise anyone if she strikes now, either directly or through proxy candidates.