The ruling DMK has won the chairmanship of all nine district panchayats in the second stage of the rural local body polls on Friday. The DMK has also won most of the panchayat unions in the nine districts. However, things did not pan out to its plan in a few unions. Defeat in Madurantakam panchayat union chairman indirect polling is a case in point
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Chennai:
Despite having a maximum number of councillors, the DMK lost Madurantakampanchayat union to rival AIADMK owing to cross-voting within the party.
In the 22 member Madurantakampanchayat union, the DMK has 10 councillors and its ally VCK one.
However, the party was divided with one of its factions voting for AIADMK’s Geetha Karthikeyan who won with only seven councillors of her own and the lone BJP councillor.
Interestingly, in the 18-councillor Alangayam panchayat union in Tirupattur, candidate of one DMK faction won with the support of rival AIADMK and PMK councilors. In the same breath, DMK candidate in Sriperumbudur panchayat union won the chairmanship through a lot.
The election resulted in a tie with both DMK’s Karunanidhi and independent Yellammal securing eight councillor’s votes each. The deadlock was ended, thanks to officials who drew a lot, which resulted in the victory of Karunanidhi.
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