DMK eyes Tiruchy Mayor post, wants to contest more seats

After a clean sweep in the assembly and rural local body polls, the Tiruchy district unit of the DMK is eyeing to have a stronghold in the city corporation and hence, it has almost decided to contest in more than 50 wards out of 65 leaving aside just 15 wards for the alliance partners, including Congress, MDMK, VCK and Left parties, with an assurance for more seats in the upcoming cooperative society elections.

“This is my wish and I want to prove that Tiruchy is the fortress of DMK. So, we need to contest in more number of seats and please understand this,” said the Tiruchy DMK strongman and Minister KN Nehru to the alliance partners at a meeting he held recently.

Since this is the first time, Tiruchy would have a male mayor, Nehru has been trying to boost his long time associate and Urban District Secretary M Anbalagan, who was serving as Deputy Mayor during the previous years when DMK was in power and gave away the mayor seat to the alliance party.

Though only 33 wards are needed to prove the majority in the 65-ward corporation, Nehru does not want to take any risk and is keen to secure the Mayor post.

“He has several plans for all round development of Tiruchy city, which is hailed to be the second capital of Tamil Nadu. For this he needs a trusted man as Mayor and he has also chalked out the plan keeping this in mind for the upcoming election”, a close associate of Nehru told DT Next.

Accordingly, Nehru has opted for more than 50 seats and the remaining 15 are likely to be shared among the allies of the ruling party. Probably, the Congress would be allotted 4 to 5 seats while MDMK would get 2 to 3 and VCK,CPI, CPM and MMK would get two each while IUML may be give one seat.

Having almost decided the number of seats, Nehru had told the allies that he needed more seats for DMK in the Tiruchy Corporation to execute his developmental projects without any hitch. “I know, you may think these numbers may not be adequate for you, but I promise you as many seats as possible in the cooperative society elections, which will be held soon,” Nehru further told the alliance parties.

Sources close to Nehru said that all the parties have expressed their support and satisfaction. When inquired about the Deputy Mayor allotment, Nehru promised it would be given to one of the partners. However a final decision would be taken by the DMK high command.