COIMBATORE: Out of the 8,39,109 lakh votes polled across 100 wards of Coimbatore city municipal corporation, the DMK-led alliance secured 4,63,145 votes and AIADMK got 2,13,643 votes. BJP was placed third with 72,393 votes. BJP candidates secured the third position in more than 80 wards out of the total 100 wards in CCMC. The party contested in 97 wards and gave AIADMK a tough fight in a few wards for the second spot.
In ward 69 AIADMK candidate KM Kamalakannan got 2039 votes while BJP's Jayalakshmi Srinivasan polled 1990 votes. In ward 71, BJP candidate J Ramesh secured 1275 votes while AIADMK candidate Manimegalai got 1309 votes.
In other words, DMK-alliance secured 55.19 per cent of total votes and AIADMK got 25.46 per cent. The BJP secured 8.62 per cent. Such is DMK's performance that the combined tally of the latter would not have been enough to stop the DMK.
An AIADMK MLA, on the condition of anonymity, said the party would not have won in more wards even if it had allied with the BJP. "We are stunned by the result. We will study what made the people of Coimbatore vote for the DMK alliance. We will soon convene a meeting with our candidates and party functionaries to know the reasons" he said.
BJP state secretary SR Sekar accused DMK of preventing people from voting after 5 pm. They captured booths and cast bogus votes. Besides, Minister Senthil Balaji distributed cash to voters.
"I saw scores of people walking away without casting their votes in my ward (28). Had our party been in an alliance with AIADMK, there was a chance for us to win many seats. However contesting alone helped us to gauge our strength," he said.
The BJP put up a good show in several town panchayats also. In ward 2 of Narasimmnaickenpalayam, BJP candidate V Jayakumar secured 222 votes and lost to DMK's T Sathish Kumar by five votes. AIADMK candidate R Sundararaj who got 183 votes, was in the third position.
In Annur ward 2, BJP candidate bettered AIADMK candidate. BJP candidate M Subashini got 91 votes, AIADMK candidate N Sharmila got only 25 votes. Praveenadevi who is an independent candidate won the ward election and got 332 votes and DMK candidate Vahitha got 302 votes.