Dravidian majors face ballot test in Tamil Nadu

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Despite there being a multi-cornered contest on the cards, the two-phased local bodies elections slated for Monday and October 19 will be a battle royale between the ruling AIADMK and its archrival DMK who are facing the polls without their allies.

The AIADMK is facing the polls within five months of storming to power and is keen on repeating its spectacular performance in the April Assembly polls in which it severely drubbed the DMK. The DMK, in an attempt to regain public support, has launched a tirade against the AIADMK, alleging political vendetta.

The AIADMK’s allies in the April Assembly elections – the DMDK and Left parties – have decided to face the civic polls together, and Vaiko’s MDMK, which boycotted the Assembly polls, is making serious attempts to regain power at the grassroots-level.

In the DMK camp, the Congress has gone solo and the PMK, an estranged ally, is going it alone in the elections in which an estimated 4.63 crore electorate would decide the fate of 4.11 lakh candidates and elect 1.12 lakh local body representatives. Over 19,500 candidates have already been declared elected unopposed.

Chennai, with the highest electorate strength of 44 lakh, is among the 10 corporations in the state to use electronic voting machines for the first time. In the first-phase polls, for which elaborate security arrangements have been made, elections would be held to elect mayors of 10 corporations, chairpersons of 60 municipalities and presidents for 259 town panchayats and 191 village panchayats.

Chief minister J. Jayalalithaa, who did a whirlwind campaign for her party, has urged the electorate to give a decisive mandate to the AIADMK to ensure more development.

Election madness

* Over 10,000 police personnel, including top-level officers, will be engaged

* 1,905 polling booths have been identified as ‘sensitive’

* 567 cases of violation of model conduct code have been registered against all parties

* 102 persons have been detained under the Goondas Act and ‘preventive action’ has been taken against 1367 rowdies and criminals