CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu urban local body elections, planned for February 2022, will be a frontal struggle between the DMK and AIADMK alliances. While the DMK coalition is intact in the Assembly and rural body elections, the AIADMK is affected by the PMK's absence in the urban polls, just as it is in the rural local body elections.
The state administration has surprised everyone by announcing that two prominent posts, the Mayor of Chennai and the Mayor of Tambaram, will be reserved for Scheduled Caste women. However, because the Mayor is elected indirectly by the councillors, the candidate will come from inside the winning coalition rather than from outside.
The DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA), which includes Congress, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), CPM, CPI, MDMK, IUML, and other fringe political groups, enjoys an advantage over the AIADMK-led alliance.
The AIADMK's NDA coalition, which ran in the 2021 Assembly elections, did not include the influential Vanniyar community's Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK). AIADMK, BJP, Tamil Manila Congress, and a few more tiny parties make up the AIADMK coalition.
However, the PMK chose not to contest in the 2021 rural local body elections in the nine districts of Tamil Nadu in coalition with the AIADMK, claiming that there was no time left for seat-sharing arrangements.