Ready for Round Two

Political parties gear up for civic elections, scheduled to be held in two phases on October 13 and 15.

T.S. SUBRAMANIAN in Chennai

IT is election time once again in Tamil Nadu, and the political parties are all set to face the local body elections, scheduled to be held in two phases on October 13 and 15.

A total of 1,30,962 representatives will be elected to the various local bodies in the State. Elections will be held for 475 wards in six city Municipal Corporations (Chennai, Coimbatore, Salem, Madurai, Tirunelveli and Tiruchi); 97,485 wards in 12,618 village panchayats; 6,570 wards in 385 panchayat unions; 8,807 wards in 561 town panchayats; 656 wards in 29 district panchayats; 3,392 wards in 102 municipalities and 987 councillor posts in 50 third-grade municipalities. About 3.91 lakh candidates are in the fray. Elections to the posts of village panchayat president and ward member are not held on party lines.

An important aspect of the elections this time is that Municipal Corporation Mayors, Deputy Mayors, Municipal Chairmen, district panchayat presidents and panchayat union presidents will not be elected directly by the voters. They will be elected by the elected councillors/ward members at a meeting of the respective local body on October 28.

The ruling Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA) led by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), which won the May 2006 Assembly elections with a majority, appears to be unstoppable. The alliance, which includes also the Congress, the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and the Left parties, is intact, although the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has decided to contest eight of the 155 wards in the Chennai Municipal Corporation on its own. It took this decision after the DMK offered it just two wards. It has also decided to go it alone in Salem. The Communist Party of India (CPI) is contesting alone in the Madurai Corporation elections.

Even as these fissures showed up in the alliance, it received a shot in the arm from an unexpected corner.

The Dalit Panthers of India (DPI), led by Thol. Thirumavalavan, pulled out of the rival alliance headed by the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and threw in its lot with the DMK. The DPI took this hard decision after the AIADMK high command filled up the seats offered to the DPI with the party's own nominees. The AIADMK took this step after DPI leaders of Perambalur and Cuddalore districts said in television interviews that if the AIADMK did not offer more seats to the DPI in these districts, the party would go it alone.

For 20,886 posts, elections for which will be held on the basis of party affiliation, 88,188 candidates are in the fray. These include 11,898 candidates belonging to the DMK, 16,085 representing the AIADMK, 4,661 from the Congress, 1,884 from the PMK, 1,925 from the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (an ally of the AIADMK), 9,327 from the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) headed by film actor Vijaykant, 1,285 from the CPI(M), 1,001 from the CPI and 1,884 from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The number of independents contesting this time, 37,805 in all, is staggering compared to the previous elections held in 1996 and 2001. Elected independents will hold the key to the indirect elections to the chairs of the local bodies.

There are no major issues in these elections, and the polls have not been seen as a referendum on the performance of the five-month-old DMK government. In Chennai, the outbreak of chikungunya and the "government's inaction" to contain its spread have been made campaign issues by the AIADMK, the MDMK and the DMDK.

The AIADMK is out to prove that its victory in seven out of the 14 seats in Chennai in the Assembly elections was no fluke. Its speakers remind voters that the previous AIADMK government resolved the water shortage in Chennai by bringing water from the Veeranam lake (in Cuddalore district) through a pipeline.

Two issues over which Vaiko, the MDMK general secretary, has attacked the DMK government are the indirect elections to the posts of Mayors, Deputy Mayors and Municipal Chairmen, and the conduct of elections to these posts on October 28, 10 days after the local body election results are announced.

Describing the decision to hold indirect elections as "a murder of democracy" and "a mockery of people's verdict", he said this was being resorted to because the DPA was afraid that its candidates would be defeated in direct elections. Vaiko alleged that it was "a plan to earn a victory not given by the people but managed through short-cuts and horse-trading".

The 13-month-old DMDK, which came up with a creditable performance by winning 8.38 per cent of the votes in the Assembly elections, is unhappy that the murasu (drum) symbol is not available to it for this round of elections. Vijaykant ridiculed the government for allotting 100 out of 100 marks to itself for its performance in the last five months. He took a pot shot at Minister for Local Administration and Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi's son M.K. Stalin's claims that the government would transform Chennai into "Singara Chennai" (beautiful Chennai). How can "those who cannot eradicate mosquitoes" claim to transform the city, he asked, referring to the chikungunya outbreak.

According to State Election Commissioner D. Chandrasekaran, the drum symbol was not in the list of free symbols available with the State Election Commission. Besides, he said, the DMDK, being a registered party but not a recognised one, was not entitled to an exclusive symbol.

The DMK is training its guns on the AIADMK. "We should only aim at the elephant, and not the rabbit," said Karunanidhi, who is also the DMK's president. Platform speakers of the DMK have gone to town with the government's initiatives on the waiver of farmers cooperative loans, distribution of Rs.2 a kg rice and free television sets to poor families, distribution of two acres of wasteland to landless peasants and the proper maintenance of roads, and with the previous AIADMK government's non-completion of flyovers and subways that were begun to be built by the DMK government that preceeded it.

Attention is focussed on another election too: the byelection to the Madurai Central Assembly constituency, which is to be held on October 11. The byelection was necessitated by the death of DMK legislator P.T.R. Palanivel Rajan on May 20, within days of assuming charge as Minister for Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments.

The DMK has fielded S.S. Ghouse Basha for the seat while the AIADMK has nominated V. Rajan Chellappa. Ghouse Basha is a loyalist of M.K. Azhagiri, another son of Karunanidhi. The DMDK has fielded M.R. Panneerselvam. Madurai is the hometown of Vijaykant and DMDK workers are trying to cash in on this "son of the soil" factor at every campaign meeting.

The contest for Madurai Central acquired a raw edge after AIADMK legislator S.V. Shanmugam from the neighbouring Madurai West constituency, praised the work done by Stalin in his (Shanmugam's) constituency, inviting upon himself the wrath of the AIADMK high command. Party MLAs have written to the Assembly Speaker demanding the disqualification of Shanmugam as a legislator.