Tamil Nadu ruling DMK has tasted a landslide victory in the state rural local body polls that were held on October 6 and October 9 in nine districts. The two-phased polls were held in the districts of Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu, Kallakurichi, Villupuram, Ranipet, Vellore, Thirupathur, Tirunelveli, and Tenkasi for 27,003 postings, including 2,901 village panchayat presidents' posts and 22,581 village panchayat ward councillors. While the DMK and ADMK contested the elections with their alliance, the parties like PMK, DMDK, AMMK, Naam Tamilar, and Makkal Needhi Maiam had contested independently. 

The votes were counted on Tuesday and the counting drive had lasted for several hours. From the beginning of the counting, the ruling DMK and its alliance were leading across the nine districts while ADMK had braced up a tumultuous defeat. Though the state election commission is yet to publish the final results, the voters' verdict has already been in complete favour of the DMK as the ruling regime has been leading in almost all the district panchayat unions and ward panchayat unions.

Besides these districts, the DMK faction has also been leading in the 27 wards in other districts where by-polls were held. Through this historical triumph, the DMK has earned prowess in strengthening the local body institutions and reiterated that the support from the people for the party remain intact since the 2021 assembly polls. The ADMK, which was ousted from the regime after a decade, has seen its citadel in the local bodies has been getting collapsed by the astounding victory of the DMK. 

Tamil Nadu State Election Commission has declared that the DMK had either won or leading in 88 seats out of 140 district panchayat seats till Tuesday night while the ADMK was leading only in four seats, which is not a good sign for one of the powerful parties in the state. Apart from DMK, its alliance Congress and VCK had also yielded a potential victory by sweeping dozens of local body seats. The polls had presented a pile of interesting events and shocking turns with the victory being scripted in a margin of one vote. 

The DMK was leading or won in 980 panchayat union wards out of a total of 1,381 wards in the nine districts while the Congress party has swept eleven seats. Vaiko's MDMK has won or leading in eight wards and VCK was leading in three seats. The ADMK was leading or won in more than 197 panchayat union wards and its ally BJP was leading in one ward as of Wednesday morning. On the other hand, PMK, which had contested the polls independently, has won or was leading in 34 wards. 

While TTV Dhinkaran's AMMK has won or was leading in three panchayat union wards, independent candidates had won or been leading in 30 wards. Though DMK had dominated the race by being the ruling party, the results had also brought some of the outfits to the limelight and one such is actor Vijay's fan association, which has won over 50 seats. According to reports, the DMK and its allies will secure more than 75% of the district panchayat wards and panchayat union wards. 

It has been reported that the DMK alliance would win more than 110 out of 140 district panchayat wards and more than 1,100 out of 1,381 panchayat union wards. The rest of the parties including Seeman's Naam Tamilar and Kamal's Makkal Needhi Maiam didn't have a breakthrough and the results had disappointed them with several of the candidates from these parties had failed to secure the deposit amount. After a massive sweep, the DMK cadres are celebrating the victory as a recognition of the party's rule in the state and the allied leaders have also been attributing the victory to MK Stalin's governance in the state.