DMK racing towards clean sweep in urban civic polls in TN, wrests West from AIADMK
Chennai, Feb 22: The DMK is clearly on its way to make a clean sweep of the urban civic polls in Tamil Nadu and has wrested the western region convincingly, considered a bastion of the main opposition AIADMK.
Buoyed by one more huge electoral win, DMK workers celebrated the victory across the state by bursting fire crackers, distributing sweets and hailing party chief M K Stalin's leadership.
Though the DMK won the 2021 Assembly election and formed the government, its arch rival AIADMK had won all the 10 Assembly seats in Coimbatore region and for a long time western Tamil Nadu is seen as a fortress of the AIADMK. As per results available and trends for this region, the DMK's victory score in urban civic polls has crossed about 75 per cent here.
Right after the last year's Assembly win, the DMK has been focussing on the western areas and the party appointed Minister V Senthil Balaji hailing from the Karur in the region as party in-charge for Coimbatore.
Many of Balaji's supporters in social media hailed the victory lauding him for the turnaround in DMK's prospects in this part of the state.
Notably, the DMK has also won in Thondamuthur town panchayat, the home turf of former AIADMK Minister S P Velumani, considered a heavy weight in the region. After decades, the ruling party has captured the Gobichettypalayam municipality, the native of another AIADMK stalwart, KA Sengottaiyan.
Stalin who had asserted that victory is sure and duty and responsibility is more said that the win in urban civic polls reflected the faith people have on the DMK government.
Out of the total 1,374 wards in corporations, the DMK has so far won 425 and the AIADMK 75. In municipalities, of the 3,843 ward member seats, the DMK till now has won 1,832 and the AIADMK 494.
As regards town panchayats, the ruling party emerged victorious in 4,261 seats out of the total 7,621. The AIADMK has got 1,178 town panchayat seats. The declaration of results is underway and the counting of votes started at 8 AM today.
As more and more results of victory poured in from municipal corporation areas, municipalities and town panchayats, DMK veteran and party general secretary Duraimurugan called on Stalin here and greeted him on the party's continuing winning streak.
DMK MPs A Raja and Dayanidhi Maran were among others who visited Stalin. Maran tweeted, "We wholeheartedly thank all the voters for their immense faith and trust!
"In yet another monumental victory, the people of Tamil Nadu have voted overwhelmingly in support of the #DMK in the #LocalBodyElections2022 Under the visionary leadership of the Hon'ble CM Thiru @mkstalin let us work towards taking TN to greater heights & glory! #DMKwins," Maran said in another tweet.
We wholeheartedly thank all the voters for their immense faith and trust!#LocalBodyElections2022 #DMKwins #DMK4TN
— Dayanidhi Maran தயாநிதி மாறன் (@Dayanidhi_Maran) February 22, 2022
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
