Even if the AIADMK-led front, which had faced the Assembly election in May 2021, remained intact for the urban local bodies elections, there would not have been much difference in the outcome, a perusal of the data on the vote share of parties reveals.
The reason is not far to seek. In the urban local bodies elections, the ruling DMK-led combine increased its vote share by 4.61% to 49.99% from 45.38% in the Assembly election.
But the combined vote share of the AIADMK and its former allies (the BJP and the PMK) went down to 32.07% this time from 39.71% nine months ago. While the BJP saw a rise of 2.79 percentage points, the AIADMK suffered a fall of 8.14 percentage points and the PMK 2.29 percentage points.
Noting that the data of the Assembly election results, covering the entire State, would not be completely comparable with those of the urban local bodies election results, a section of AIADMK functionaries points out that the behaviour of voters at the local bodies elections would be different from that at the Assembly or Lok Sabha election in which people are called upon to choose a government. But in the urban local bodies elections, electors knew well from the beginning that the results would not have any bearing on the government.
Yet, their party, according to the functionaries, should have taken steps to retain the coalition stitched for the 2019 Lok Sabha election or at least for the Assembly election. “Look at how the DMK has conducted itself in the last two years. Despite registering a thumping victory in 2019, it chose to retain its alliance for the elections to the Assembly and the local bodies,” they say.
Had the AIADMK retained its partners, it could have won much more than what it did, besides giving a tough fight at several places, the functionaries observe, even while conceding that the results would have even then gone in favour of the formation headed by the ruling party.
