Parties have started preparing for the upcoming local body polls, slated to be held before the end of this year. The polls will be the first since the assembly elections held on April 6.
With an eye on the upcoming polls, the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) is focusing on the districts in the western region where it fared poorly. Chief minister and DMK president MK Stalin even went on a huddle with district secretaries on Sunday to discuss the polls.
The Supreme Court has ordered the Tamil Nadu state election body to complete the rural local body polls in nine newly created districts before September 15. Elections to urban local bodies were last held in October 2011 and after their five year tenure was over issues over delimitation of wards arose and stalled the elections.
However, elections to 27 rural local bodies were completed in 2011. “Their tenure will continue,” said a senior DMK leader who was part of the meeting. “Today’s meeting focused on the nine districts and since it will be the first election since our win, the chief minister wants us to build on the goodwill gained so far,” the DMK leader said.
MLAs and MPs belonging to the nine new districts--Vellore, Ranipet, Tirupattur, Kancheepuram, Chengalpet, Villupuram, Kallakuruchi, Tirunelvelu, Tenkasi-- were also present at the meeting. While these regions are predominantly in the south, considered as DMK’s stronghold and north where the party performed well, DMK is now working to weaken the opposition AIADMK’s hometurf in the western region. The alliance led by DMK won just 17 of the 50 seats in the region, while it almost swept all other regions in the state. The AIADMK-led alliance with the BJP won the remaining 33. The western belt, also known as the Kongu region, is also the only place where the BJP enjoys considerable support in comparison to its unpopularity elsewhere in the state and the national party hopes to grow from here. Two of BJP’s four MLAs are from this region.
{{/usCountry}}MLAs and MPs belonging to the nine new districts--Vellore, Ranipet, Tirupattur, Kancheepuram, Chengalpet, Villupuram, Kallakuruchi, Tirunelvelu, Tenkasi-- were also present at the meeting. While these regions are predominantly in the south, considered as DMK’s stronghold and north where the party performed well, DMK is now working to weaken the opposition AIADMK’s hometurf in the western region. The alliance led by DMK won just 17 of the 50 seats in the region, while it almost swept all other regions in the state. The AIADMK-led alliance with the BJP won the remaining 33. The western belt, also known as the Kongu region, is also the only place where the BJP enjoys considerable support in comparison to its unpopularity elsewhere in the state and the national party hopes to grow from here. Two of BJP’s four MLAs are from this region.
{{/usCountry}}The BJP has formed a 17-member panel to start preparing for the local body polls. “We will study our strengths in the panchayats, municipalities and corporations to analyse where we can contest,” said Karu Nagarajan, BJP’s state general secretary and a committee member. “As a first step we will collect nominations and then we will plan our strategy, campaign before sitting down with our alliance partners.”
The DMK inducted three MLAs from the western belt into its cabinet and also saw to it that it has representation from the largely present Gounder community from here from which former chief minister Edappadi Palanswami belongs. The DMK has been poaching strong leaders from the western region belonging to the AIADMK and Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM). Stalin while inductingHaasan’s lieutenant turned rebel R Mahendran in July had said that the party would have fared better in the west if people like Mahendran were with the DMK.
“Even while campaigning last year, we were focussed on building our strength in the western region. We need to do more there,” the DMK leader said. The party is hoping that its popularity after forming the government will help them.