CHENNAI: Just after the verdict of the Supreme Court on conducting local body elections was pronounced, political parties in the State including the ruling AIADMK and the principal opposition party DMK have swung into action.
While Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said the AIADMK would begin the seat-sharing talks with the alliance parties today (Friday), the DMK has convened a meeting of the party’s district secretaries, MPs and MLAs on Sunday to chalk out the strategies for the local body elections.
Describing the SC verdict as historic, the chief minister, at Omalur in Salem district, said the AIADMK would register a massive victory in the local body elections.
Responding to a question, Palaniswami said "It is quite normal for a politician to face the people and win the elections. But out of fear over defeat, the DMK president is speaking about something else. For the past many years, the DMK has been approaching the court out of fear over defeat in the local body elections. Even now, they did the same but the court had thwarted it. "
In Chennai, endorsing the view of the chief minister that the SC verdict was indeed a historic one, DMK president MK Stalin said verdict had protected the democracy. During the hearing before the SC on Thursday, the SEC had agreed the argument of the DMK over delimitation process in the newly created districts and it was a big victory for the party. He said if the ruling party had the guts, it should face the elections.
Meanwhile, the DMK has convened the meeting of its MPs, MLAs and district secretaries on December 8 (Sunday) to chalk out the strategies for local body elections.
At the AIADMK headquarters, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam chaired the meeting of the party functionaries in which State Ministers, district secretaries, headquarters secretaries and others about the candidates to be selected for the grassroots level local bodies and the measures for the ensuing elections.