Chennai: DMK candidate Sivagami Arivazhagan on Tuesday won at a Salem ward where the residence of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and present Opposition leader Edappadi Palaniswami is located.
The Salem district especially Edappadi is a stronghold of Palaniswami and AIADMK. However, as per the early trends, DMK’s win in parts of the western belt shows that the power politics in the wards have been turned tables after the Stalin-led DMK formed the government in the state.
On Tuesday, DMK candidate Sivagami Arivazhagan was declared the winner in Ward 23 Salem Nedunchalai Nagar, as per the report on ABP Nadu.
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Apart from Salem, AIADMK also lost in some of its strongholds in the western belt. Till noon on Tuesday, DMK won many wards in Salem, Coimbatore, Erode, Tirupur and Pollachi as against the Tamil Nadu Assembly Election results in April 2021. Even during the Assembly elections despite anti-incumbency, AIADMK recorded a victory in the western belt and continued to hold the western district as its fort.
However, in the local body polls held after over 10 years, AIADMK's Coimbatore mayor candidate Kirubalini Karthikeyan lost the polls and suffered a blow from DMK candidate Govindarajan.
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DMK is also leading in five of the six wards in Coimbatore's Thondamuthur constituency. Thondamuthur was also the stronghold of former Minister Velumani.
On the other hand, AIADMK went alone in the local body polls while DMK contested along with over 10 alliance partners. Hence, whether the defeat of AIADMK was due to a dent in the party’s vote bank by DMK or divide of party’s vote bank among the previous election’s alliance partners of BJP and PMK is yet to be ascertained.