MADURAI: It's a massive win for the DMK in south Tamil Nadu as the party captured all the six municipal corporations - Madurai, Dindigul, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, Nagercoil and Sivakasi.
Adding colour to the DMK victory, its allies won nearly 97 per cent of municipalities in the ten southern districts.
The southern districts, including Madurai, Theni and Dindigul were once known as strongholds of AIADMK, but not any longer. The slide started in the Assembly elections when AIADMK lost a majority of the seats in the south to DMK.
DMK earned a majority in Periyakulam municipality, the native of AIADMK Coordinator O. Paneerselvam. The former chief minister was the chairman of the municipality earlier.
In Nagercoil district, AIADMK, which won 7 of the 52 seats, was pushed to third place. Sources said BJP that secured 11 seats will be the primary opposition party in Nagercoil municipal corporation.
The current trend is in stark contrast with the 2011 local body elections. There were only three corporations - Madurai, Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi- at the time and AIADMK defeated DMK in all the mayorships.
A Anwhar Raajhaa, former MP and senior AIADMK leader, who was recently sidelined for supporting VK Sasikala, said that it is common for a ruling party to have an upper hand in the local body elections.
"But this defeat is not like other defeats. It apparently shows that the common public is losing their confidence in AIADMK. It is the appropriate time for the party (leaders) to introspect and to decide the next course of action" he said.
Speaking on the strategy adopted for the elections, a sitting MLA of DMK on the condition of anonymity said that DMK specifically concentrated on the southern districts.
"One can note that the ministers from the south, notably I Periyasami, KKSSR Ramachandran, PTR Palanivel Thiaga Rajan, K R Periakaruppan, Thangam Tenarasu, Anitha Radhakrishnan, SR Rajakannappan, T Mano Thangaraj, P Moorthy have been allotted strong portfolios and apart from this, DMK Women Wing Secretary Kanimozhi MP was given the responsibility to take care of the Thoothukudi region," he said.
"The primary task allotted to us was to reach the people of all sects and to retain their confidence in the party and government, that they had during the assembly elections. All the ministers from the south are committed to breaking the myth that southern districts are a bastion of AIADMK," he added.
Speaking to media, after the victory, Finance Minister PTR Palanivel said that "this victory is the recognition from the people for the Dravidian model rule, as said by the Chief Minister".