The results of the urban local bodies elections from 12,463 wards across Tamil Nadu have thrown up no surprise as the ruling DMK and its allies have registered a thumping victory.
Given the feature that has been in vogue since 1996 when the local bodies elections were held under the 73 rd and 74 th constitutional amendments, it was an open secret from the beginning that aided by arithmetic strength, the DMK-led front had an advantage over others, including the main Opposition AIADMK and the BJP. Besides, the coalition that the AIADMK had stitched for the Assembly election in April-May 2021 had disintegrated with the BJP and the PMK going it alone.
But what is striking this time, compared with the Assembly election results nine months ago, is that the DMK-led combine has been able to increase its strike rate — from about 67% of the seats to over 80% of the wards. For the Assembly election, a one-to-one comparison between the DMK and the AIADMK would reveal that the ratio between the DMK and the AIADMK was 2:1, which meant that for every two seats won by the DMK, the AIADMK could bag only one seat. But in the local bodies elections (according to the results released till 8. 30 p.m. on Tuesday), the gap has grown wider as the ratio is roughly 5.8:1 in the municipal corporations; 3.7:1 in the municipalities; and 3.6:1 in the town panchayats.
