CHENNAI: The DMK has singlehandedly won the Chennai Corporation by pocketing 153 of 166 wards, as per the urban local body results declared for all the 200 wards in the city on Tuesday. The party’s allies Congress won 13 seats, CPI (M) four, VCK four, MDMK two, and CPI and IUML one each. The total victory count of the DMK alliance stood at 178. The AIADMK won 15 seats while AMMK and BJP won one ward each and independent candidates bagged five seats.
Of the 15 wards won by the AIADMK, three each were in Sholinganallur, Perungudi, and Manali zones. BJP’s Uma Anandhan won from ward 134 with a difference of over 2,000 votes, battling it out with the INC. BJP may have managed to secure second place in around 20 wards, including Thiruvottiyur and Royapuram, says BJP State president K Annamalai.
AIADMK’s Sivakami P, touted to be the party’s mayoral candidate, lost to DMK’s Parithi Ilamsurithi, son of former minister Paruthi Ilamvazhuthi, by a difference of 7,268 votes in ward 99. In some wards, the DMK faced a tough fight. In ward 136, DMK polled 7,222 votes whereas Arivu Selvi, an independent candidate supported by Vijay Makkal Iyakkam polled 5,112 votes. In ward 9 of Tiruvottiyur zone, DMK won against AIADMK with a difference of 492 votes. In ward 181, DMK beat AIADMK by 654 votes. The party recorded landslide victory in some wards including 168 where it won by 8,249 votes.
In Tiruvottiyur, DMK’s sweep was halted by rebel candidates who contested independently. In ward 2, Gomathi Santhoshkumar, wife of a DMK functionary won. In ward 7, AIADMK’s Karthik won due to splitting of votes by a DMK man who was denied a seat. Sholinganallur was one of the few zones where DMK took a hit with the AIADMK winning three of the nine wards and independents winning two. With the support of a DMK-led government, civic infrastructure development in the city is expected to get a boost.