Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK President MK Stalin is getting ready for the next elections in the state by initiating discussions and deploying the measures to win the local body polls in the nine districts. The elections for the local bodies in these districts should be held within September 15 as per the directive that was passed by the Supreme Court this June. The state election commission will likely be issuing notification for the local body polls within this month. 

MK Stalin has on Sunday chaired a meeting of DMK district secretaries that was held in the party's headquarters in Chennai. The Chief Minister has discussed preparations for the local body polls in nine districts. He had directed the party functionaries to gear up for another big election battle and the nine districts that will be going to polls include Kancheepuram, Chengalpet, Vellore, Ranipet, Tirupathur, Villupuram, Kallakurichi, Tenkasi, and Tirunelveli. 

According to reports, the DMK leadership had directed the functionaries to reach out to the people and take the work and the efforts taken by the DMK government in the people welfare measures and to fulfil poll promises of the party. The cadres are asked to speak about Stalin's schemes to win the local polls in nine districts. The meeting had seen the presence of the district secretaries, MLAs, and MPs from these nine districts, and they were given the responsibility to crack the polls. 

While the tag of the state ruling party would be a token of advantage for DMK to lead the race in the local body polls, MK Stalin is keen that the party shouldn't lose the grip of the momentum through this advantage and it must focus on addressing the issues in these local bodies to enjoy the scale of victory akin to the state assembly polls. The party is preparing to take the four-month-old Stalin's rule to win the local bodies.

Some of the schemes of MK Stalin that would be pitched on the campaign in these local bodies include Rs 4,000 Covid-19 cash relief to the rice ration cardholders, free-of-cost travel in the public town buses for women, reservation for the government school students in admission to the professional courses in colleges, and Stalin government's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Stalin has also directed the authorities to complete the addressing of the issues received through the scheme of 'Ungal Thoguthiyil Mudalamaichar' - (Chief Minister in your constituency). Stalin has promised to address the problems and issues that were petitioned to him through this scheme in hundred days and as he is nearing completing his 100-days rule, he has ordered the authorities to address the issues of the people ahead of the local body polls. 

The DMK would also be speaking about Stalin's flagship health care programme 'Makkalai Thedi Maruthuvam', that he launched last week. The pioneering health care programme, which is the first-of-its-kind in the country, aims to take healthcare services to the doorsteps of the people. Initially, this programme has been launched in few districts and the party would be campaigning in the local body polls by publicizing this healthcare scheme, which is one of Stalin's seven visions for Tamil Nadu. 

In June, the Supreme Court has denied granting an extension to the Tamil Nadu government and the state election commission in conducting the elections for the local bodies in these nine districts. The elections for the local bodies were held in the previous ADMK regime and the elections haven't been held in these nine districts as they were bifurcated and the demarcation process was going on. During the ADMK regime, Chengalpattu was carved out of Kancheepuram and Vellore was trifurcated to two new districts of Ranipet and Tirupathur. 

Kallakurichi district was born from Villupuram while Tenkasi was born from Tirunelveli district. The apex court had ordered that local body polls in these nine districts must be held and results should be announced within September 15 and with just one month ahead, the DMK has begun preparations for the polls. The government had last month said that polls to urban local bodies would be held before December 2021 and following polls to rural civic bodies in nine districts.