Tamil Nadu crashes hopes of a DMDK-CPM combine

MADURAI: The local body polls have crashed the hopes of the DMDK-CPM combine of emerging into an alternative to the two major Dravidian parties. The two parties shunted out of the AIADMK alliance joined together just before the local body elections, but their hopes of power were crippled within a month. In fact, the DMDK lost many seats in the local bodies that it had won during the last elections. The party, that tested waters in the local body elections in 2006, barely two years after it was founded in the very same Madurai, had managed to win nine posts of councillor. But now not even one of its candidates won. Worse, most of them lost their deposit.

In ward number three, DMDK candidate K Oyyammal bagged 2,161 votes and lost by a thin margin of 137 votes to AIADMK candidate R Santhi. That was probably the only ward where a DMDK councillor came close to victory. Elsewhere, they were a distant third or fourth, faring poorer than the Congress and the MDMK.

In Madurai, DMDK's mayor candidate K Kaviarasu managed to garner 88,788 votes.

Critics point out that though Kaviarasu was the most prominent face of the party in Madurai, the votes he garnered were caste votes. "While all parties had fielded Thevar candidates, Kaviarasu is a Yadav, which enjoys a sizeable presence in Madurai. So he could consolidate and garner the community's votes,'' said a party functionary.

In the last assembly elections where Vijayakanth allied with AIADMK and steered DMDK to the position of principal opposition party in the assembly by winning 29 segments, a sizeable chunk of the winning segments were in southern Tamil Nadu. In Madurai, two assembly segments - Thiruparankunram and Madurai West were won by the party.

Besides, CPM too has a quite a following in the region and the combine was hoping to emerge as an alternative force in the state.

The only solace for the DMDK was in Tiruneveli corporation where P Thaneswaran won the post of councillor by bagging 1,055 votes. The mayor candidate in the southern town, S Kannammal, bagged 10,021 votes, lesser than A Asanpathu, an independent candidate, and lost her deposit. In neighbouring port town of Tuticorin too, the DMDK mayor candidate S Rajeswari gave a poor show with just 7,407 votes and lost her deposit.

The DMDK lost many seats in the local bodies that it had won during the last elections. The party, that tested waters in the local body elections in 2006, had managed to win nine posts of councillor.