CHENNAI: With the battle for crucial posts of ward councilors to corporation, municipalities and town panchayats set to intensify, political parties are hastening the process of candidate selection.
While the DMK has completed the exercise, the opposition AIADMK has begun to identify party candidates for the upcoming urban local body elections across the state.
While AIADMK coordinator O Panneerselvam conducted interviews for aspiring candidates in Theni on Saturday, former minister S P Velumani initiated the process in Coimbatore. Similar interviews are being conducted in Madurai by former ministers Sellur K Raju and R B Udhayakumar.
Senior leaders D Jayakumar, C Ve Shanmugam and C Vijayabaskar are involved in candidate selection process in their respective turfs, while former chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami has taken up the task in Salem. AIADMK partymen said despite defeats in the assembly election and poor show in the rural local body elections, there was an overwhelming response from aspirants for the urban local body polls. "The enthusiasm is much more in Coimbatore district, where the party won nine assembly seats," said a senior functionary. But this is where the DMK too is strengthening its poll ammunition.
The interview held at 'Idhaya Deivam Maaligai,' the party office on Huzur Road in Coimbatore, had men and women vying for the tickets to contest for the post of Coimbatore corporation ward councillors as well as those for municipalities and town panchayats in the district. While almost all former councillors have applied to contest again, there were scores of applications from new faces as well.
"The interview with each applicant last only for a few minutes. The questions range from what are his or her contributions to their locality, if they held any posts in local bodies in the past and their years of service in the party," said a functionary. Irrespective of the position an applicant holds in the party now or held in the past, a thorough background check was being done on their potential to win, said partymen. Only after the background check, names would be shortlisted.
In Trichy, for instance, where the AIADMK has completed the interview process, 90 % of the shortlisted candidates were in their 30s and 40s. The lessons learnt in the assembly election debacle that saw AIADMK losing all the nine assembly segments in Trichy district were taken into account while identifying the probable candidates. "The IT wing also analysed the popularity and groundwork done by the applicants in their respective wards," a functionary said.
