Chennai, Feb 17 (Agency) The hustle and bustle of the high voltage campaign for the February 19 ordinary elections to the Urban Local bodies in Tamil Nadu ended at 1700 hrs on Thursday evening. A total of 57,778 candidates were in the fray for the elections to 648 urban local bodies in 21 Municipal Corporations, 138 Municipalities and 489 Town Panchayats in the State. Elections will be held to fill up 12,607 posts, which included 1,374 Corporation Ward members, 3,843 Municipality Ward members and 7,621 Town Panchayat member posts. Of the 57,778 candidates, 11,196 candidates were contesting for Corporation Ward members, 17,922 for Municipality Ward members and 28,660 for Town Panchayat Ward member posts.
A total 218 candidates were declared elected unopposed in various parts of the State. Though several parties are in the fray, it would be a straight fight between the DMK and the AIADMK, which was trying to re-gain the people’s confidence after losing the Assembly polls. While DMK President and Chief Minister M K Stalin led the DMK-led Front’s campaign through virtual mode, the top leaders of the Principal Opposition AIADMK were involved in physical campaigning extensively touring the poll- bound areas to attract the voters.
The campaigning saw both the ruling party and the Opposition trading charges against each other, setting the tone for one of the fiercely contested polls, which would be a testament to the performance of the 10-month old DMK regime, which returned to power after a gap of ten years in the May 2021 Assembly polls. Polling would be held on February 19 and the counting of votes will take place on February 22. After the newly elected members assume office on March two, indirect elections for the Mayors and Deputy Mayors of the Corporations, the Chairpersons and Vice-chairpersons of the Municipalities and the Presidents and Vice-Presidents of the Town Panchayats will be held on March four. The elections would witness a multi-cornered contest.
Heading the field was the DMK-led Front, which consists of Congress, MDMK, VCK, CPI, CPI(M) and TVK. The Principal Opposition AIADMK is facing the polls along with TMC, after the PMK and the BJP, which had faced the 2021 Assembly polls together, walked out of the front and will contest the polls alone. Other parties in the fray included, the DMDK of actor-politician Vijayakanth, actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam, Naam Tamizhar Katchi of actor-director Seeman, AMMK led by TTV Dhinakaran, who is the nephew of expelled AIADMK leader V K Sasikala and other minor outfits.