It is hatrick for three councillors from Dindigul Corporation.
Mohamed Siddique, a DMK candidate from ward 18, successfully contested in 2006 and 2011. He defeated Mohamed Rafiq of the AIADMK by over 1000 votes and declared elected to the council for the third time in 2022.
Another DMK candidate Anand from ward 8 also made it to the council for the third time after defeating (2022) the former Mayor Marudaraj’s son Veeramarban by getting 1,554 more votes.
A CPI (M) candidate Mariammal from ward 11 defeated AIADMK candidate Ponmuthu by getting 1,441 votes more and registered victory in a comfortable manner.
Interestingly, a DMK cadre Marthandam won from Ward 44 as an Independent and joined the party in the presence of district secretary and Cooperation Minister I Periasami.
Women councillors to dominate
The Chief Minister M.K. Stalin had earmarked 50 % of the seats to women in the urban local body. Post elections, the Dindigul Corporation, which has 48 wards, would have 26 councillors in the council. Apart from the wards exclusively earmarked for women, in the general wards too, women got elected, thus giving more representation.
Though the DMK president Mr. Stalin had stated that the councillors would elect the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor through indirect election, rumours were agog that the party high command had started the process of selecting the Mayor for the councils. At least three councillors-elect from Dindigul were vying with one another to get the top post and the competition was intense, DMK sources said.
