COIMBATORE: While the DMK dominated the rural local body elections by winning more number of posts across the State than its chief rival AIADMK, the Western region continues to be the fortress of the two leaves party.
Except in The Nilgiris and Krishnagiri, where DMK overpowered AIADMK, the ruling party showed its dominance in the western region by winning major posts in district panchayats and majority of the panchayat unions. When it comes to the district panchayats, the AIADMK captured Coimbatore, Tirupur, Erode, Salem and Namakkal districts. The party has won 10 out of 17 district panchayat ward members in Coimbatore while the DMK won five. In Tirupur, the ruling party won 13 out of 17 posts (DMK won three), 12 out of 19 in Erode (DMK bagged four), 18 out of 29 in Salem (DMK got five) and 15 out of 17 in Namakkal, where the DMK took four posts for itself.
In Krishnagiri and The Nilgiris, it was the DMK that emerged victorious by winning majority of ward member posts there. The DMK won 12 out of 23 district panchayat ward member posts in Krishnaigri (AIADMK took seven) and four out of six in The Nilgiris (AIADMK won one post).
In the case of Dharmapuri, where the counting and declaration of results progressed slowly, the AIADMK alliance has won in 10 posts out of the 18. The AIADMK won six posts, the PMK three and DMDK one, while the DMK won eight ward member posts. A similar trend was witnessed in the case of election to the panchayat union ward member posts as well. The AIADMK has won nine out of the 12 panchayat unions in Coimbatore, six out of the 13 panchayat unions in Tirupur, six out of the 14 in Erode, 14 out of the 20 in Salem, 10 out of 15 posts in Namakkal and seven out of 10 in Dharmapuri districts.