DMK sweeps urban local body polls, MK Stalin says real revolution of Dravidian political ideals

While results for some seats were still awaited, the DMK won 925 out of total 1,374 city corporation seats, 2,360 out of 3,843 municipality seats and 4,388 out of 7,621 town panchayat seats.

The AIADMK won 161 city corporation seats and 638 municipality seats. It also won 15 town panchayats (1,206 seats).

Here's the final list of candidates who won in the urban local body elections in Chennai Corporation. The #DMK has won 153 wards while #AIADMK has secured victory in 15. #TNElectionResults @IndianExpress pic.twitter.com/wM0t5IfEY5

— Janardhan Koushik (@koushiktweets) February 22, 2022

After the victory, Stalin in a speech urged his cadres to remain humble. “I have said this earlier too… When people gift us massive victories, our work after that should be such that those who did not vote for us should regret for not voting for us. I assume that the same has happened now with these results,” he said.

“Even the Kongu region has been captured,” Stalin said, referring to the impressive performance in Western Tamil Nadu.

Addressing reporters later, he said the credit for the victory goes to the DMK-led secular alliance. “In the recent past, we have had poll victories in Lok Sabha (2019), Assembly (2021) and rural local body polls (2019 and 2021). I wish to say that the support of alliance partners played a key role here,” he said.

“The increased representation of women candidates in this election means these results are a real revolution of Dravidian political ideals,” Stalin said, adding that his party should celebrate the victory peacefully.

While the DMK’s alliance, backed by Left, Dalit and minority parties, helped in the elections, the Stalin government’s impressive beginning and schemes within the first nine months of rule are also being seen as reasons for the party’s impressive performance.

For the AIADMK, the internal crisis as well as camaraderie with the BJP, which may have alienated its secular, minority vote base, could have been possible factors. Unlike the DMK, AIADMK also lost their allies, such as PMK and BJP.

The BJP, which chose to contest alone in the urban local body polls, failed to make a mark even as the national leadership brought in a young party chief, former IPS officer K Annamalai, who is in his 30s, to lead the party in Tamil Nadu.

In the 2011 local body polls, when urban and rural local bodies polls together, the BJP had won 241 seats (out of 20,606 seats) compared to 308 seats they won this time in urban local body polls (it contested from 42% of the total 12,664 seats). Of 308 seats, 200 were from a single district – Kanyakumari.