CHENNAI: A day after a resounding victory in the urban local body polls, the DMK is facing another challenge as its partners in the Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) have started lobbying for chairperson posts in local bodies as their share of the spoils of war. SPA has bagged all 21 corporations and is likely to control 90 per cent of municipalities and 85 per cent town panchayats in the State.
“Congress got two mayor posts when Tamil Nadu had just six corporations. Now, since the number of corporations has gone up to 21, it would be fair to expect five mayor posts and equal number of deputy mayors. Similarly, at least 10 per cent of chief posts in municipalities and town panchayats should also be allocated to us,” says State Congress secretary GK Muralidharan.
Congress Assembly floor leader K Selvaperunthagai who met the Chief Minister and DMK president MK Stalin along with TNCC president KS Alagiri and former Union ministers EVKS Elangovan and KV Thankabalu to congratulate him on the victory, told TNIE, “On Thursday, Dr Srivella Prasad, AICC secretary and party in-charge of Tamil Nadu will arrive in Chennai to hold talks with DMK leadership on this.”
Stalin had stated before the elections that his party will hold talks with alliance partners for sharing civic chief posts after the poll results. According to VCK sources, during a meeting with the CM on Wednesday, VCK Chief Thol Thirumavalavan shared the party’s wish list with him.
VCK seeks chief or deputy chief posts; Left to wait
The VCK Chief demanded his party be given chief or deputy chief posts in all panchayats where the party won more than three wards. Left allies, the CPI and the CPM, have decided to wait. While former CPI MLA N Periyasamy said the issue will be discussed first at the party’s state executive committee meeting on February 24, CPM state secretary K Balakrishnan said the party is waiting for complete poll results. “We will decide after factoring in our victory and reservation for civic chief posts.”
According to sources, while CPI is eyeing the 60-member Tiruppur Corporation where it has won six wards, the Left parties want at least five municipalities and 10 town panchayats chief posts each. The MDMK may be expecting more than what it got in 2011 — one municipality chairman and seven towns panchayat chairman posts. Meanwhile, hundreds of winners from DMK have started arriving in Chennai to meet party president MK Stalin.
According to party sources, most of them are also making efforts to meet leaders such as general secretary Duraimurugan, treasurer TR Baalu, organising secretary RS Bharathi, youth wing secretary Udhayanidhi Stalin, women wing secretary Kanimozhi Karunanidhi to get a shot at the local body chief posts.
“The leadership has asked district secretaries and party incharges to send at least three names for posts of Mayor, municipal chairperson and town panchayat president according to reservation rules along with their profile and family background details,” says a DMK municipal councillor
Who gets the coveted Chennai mayor seat?
Amid hectic lobbying by DMK functionaries and alliance partners to bag civic body chief posts, the question of who will get the most prestigious seat — mayor of the Greater Chennai Corporation — remains up in the air. The post is reserved for a Scheduled Caste woman and, according to DMK sources, Kavitha Narayanan was the party’s top pick. Her loss in Ward 17 under Manali zone, however, has put paid to those plans, leaving the field wide open for all 11 SC women elected on DMK tickets. The party leadership has instructed the Chennai district functionaries to submit profiles of each of them to be scrutinised and shortlisted for the post