CHENNAI: The local body elections not only gave an impressive victory to the DMK-led alliance but also shocked political parties such as PMK, AMMK, NTK and Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM), who were hoping to emerge as a single third political force in the State. Even independent candidates performed better than these parties in the polls.
As per declared results at 4 pm on Wednesday, the DMK-led alliance had won 138 district ward councillor posts out of 140, leaving only two for the AIADMK alliance. Likewise, in case of union councillor postings, the DMK alliance is expected to bag 1,020 out of 1,381 seats and the AIADMK front only 214. The PMK is expected to win 47 union councillor seats and the AMMK four, while DMDK has bagged just one. NTK and MNM drew a blank even as independents are set to win 92 seats in nine districts.
Commenting on the outcome, veteran journalist Srinivasan Venkat told TNIE, “Going by the result, there is actually no strong ‘second force’ in the State at the moment. For a party to be truly considered as a second force, the difference should be within 10 per cent of the winner, in terms of number of seats won or the vote share or both. First, even the AIADMK, the second force right now, should introspect on their performance and strategy to gain the people’s confidence.”
“As for the third political force, the party aspiring for it needs to retain the confidence of its cadre. The result shows that PMK is not able to attract even its cadre and voter base. Until these parties know their strengths and weaknesses and adopt appropriate strategies, emerging as a promising third front would remain a dream.”
Another veteran journalist D Karthikeyan told TNIE, “It seems not all small parties want to become the third front and only want to play spoilsport for others. If parties earnestly want to become a third front, they should find like-minded parties in terms of ideology and put up a united front through a common minimum program. Otherwise, people would support either DMK or AIADMK since all smaller parties anyway form an alliance with the Dravidian majors.”
He added that dreamers of the third front not only lost seats but also their deposits in most places. He further stressed that the outcome of the election clearly shows people want to support only the winners or losers, not the ‘vote-splitters’. In some places, candidates of the PMK and AMMK may have won because of their individual influence and not because of the goodwill enjoyed by the party. Hence, to become the third front, they have miles to go, he said.
No match
The AIADMK, despite not winning a considerable number of seats, is still far ahead of parties that dream of forming a third front in the State, observers said