AIADMK gets thumping majority in Corporation Council

By G Saravanan
Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai on October 22, 2011:
Source:http://expressbuzz.com/cities/chennai/aiadmk-majority-in-corporation-council/325832.html

CHENNAI: Continuing its winning streak, AIADMK on Friday recorded an impressive win in the Chennai Corporation Council elections as the party was able to bag 168 wards out of a total of 200.

While the DMK was able to win only 24 seats, the Congress bagged two seats and the PMK, DMDK and MDMK came victorious in one each. Thirumavalavan-led Viduthalai Chiruthaigai Katchi (VCK) recorded its first win in the Chennai Corporation by winning a seat.

Two independent candidates have also made it to the Corporation Council.

In the last Chennai Corporation Council, the DMK had 93 members, Congress 35, PMK 13, DMDK 4, Bahujan Samaj Party 1, Communist Party of India 2, CPIM 1, MGR Kazhagam 1, Tamil Maanila Desiya League 1 and two seats were represented by independents. Two seats were vacant.

While four of the AIADMK’s candidates won the elections in 2006, Jayalalithaa asked them to resign from their posts in protest against the violence that marred the polls. Two of the members obeyed the party high command’s diktat and resigned, while the other two switched allegiance to the DMK.

While it was a surprise victory for PMK in Ward 15 as the party fared poorly in the Chennai Corporation polls, the DMDK, which was touted to be a dark horse to win more than 10 wards in the Chennai Corporation, was restricted to just one. The party’s nominee A V Arumugam won the Ward 20 by a thin margin.

Party Sweeps Suburban Chennai

AIADMK has won in most civic bodies in suburban Chennai, including the Tambaram Municipality (M Karikalan), the gateway to the city. The party  emerged victorious in municipalities of Pallavaram (Nizar Ahmed), Pammal (Elangovan CV) and Maraimalai Nagar (Gopi Kannan). It also won the post of chairman of Town Panchayats of Chitlapakkam, Madambakkam, Sembakkam, Peerkankaranai, Mamallapuram and Sriperumbudur.