The DMK brought the ruling AIADMK coalition back to the ground after their sublime performance in the recently concluded local body elections. The DMK pulled off a sizable victory against their rivals to show that they still hold considerable influence over the rural masses of the state. DMK's victory assumes significance since the local body polls are usually won by the ruling party.
Out of the 515 District Panchayat Council seats, the DMK allies bagged 272 while the AIADMK allies could win only 240. Of the 5,090 Panchayat Union seats, DMK allies won 2,378 seats while AIADMK could only hold on to 2150 seats. The DMK displayed its political acumen by capturing Salem, a traditional AIADMK stronghold and home of Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami, and made significant inroads into various other AIADMK strongholds while holding on to their traditional strongholds in the state. The election saw the victory of the state’s first transsexual union Panchayat member, A. Riya from, Tiruchengode block of Namakkal district. She won by a margin of 940 votes.
"DMK has won despite the ruling party's anarchy, misuse of power and a partisan State Election Commission (SEC),” said DMK chief M.K. Stalin. Deputy Chief Minister and AIADMK coordinator O. Panneerselvam accepted the defeat and said: “Whatever be the poll outcome, we bow our head and accept the public mandate”. Stalin also took time to write a letter of gratitude to its voters in the state.
The result dealt a serious blow to the AIADMK. Political analyst R Mani says, “Anti-incumbency and the lack of a strong leader affected the AIADMK's ambition. It's too early to call this a victory since we have to wait and watch whether DMK can repeat this in the urban areas.” He also believes that the anti-CAA protest and the AIADMK-BJP ties played its part in the ruling party’s defeat. During the course of vote counting, the government and the election commission were accused of impeding the election process so as to manipulate the result in favor of the ruling party.
Meanwhile the BJP, which didn't have much of a voter base in the state, fared well in the election grabbing around 97 seats. But it is evident from the results that the two Dravidian powerhouses still share the majority of the vote base in the grassroots level.
The DMK knows that it is too early to celebrate as they have to prove their might in the urban areas where elections are yet to take place. However, the results have come as a big morale booster for the party ahead of 2021 assembly polls.
