Tamil Nadu is back on the election furore as the battle is on between the parties for the upcoming local body polls for nine newly demarcated districts. Stirring a race in a fashion of the assembly polls, the top two parties are preparing to take on each other to cultivate the votes and to win the rural local bodies. The upcoming local body polls will be held in two phases on October 6 and October 9.

While the DMK go for the polls with the existing alliance and with more advantage of being a ruling party, the ADMK, which is already facing a leadership crisis, hopes to deliver a good show to have relief from the debacle in the 2021 assembly polls. The polls will be held in nine districts - Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu, Villupuram, Kallakurichi, Vellore, Ranipet, Tirupathur, Tirunelveli, and Tenkasi. Most of these districts lie on the northern belt of the state and for ADMK, it was imperative that it should yield support from its allied parties. 

However, it has now become impossible for ADMK to have a better political show in the local body polls as the coalition that was formed by ADMK leader Edappadi Palaniswami has been collapsed. Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) has decided to contest the local body polls independently by relinquishing the ADMK alliance. For Edappadi Palaniswami, who aimed to cultivate votes through PMK's stronghold, PMK's decision to quit the alliance for the local body polls was a big shock as with that decision, the ADMK will less likely have a political turning point after the assembly election defeat. 

PMK enjoys a stronghold in most of these districts through its flagship Vanniyar vote bank and it has decided to contest independently in the local body polls to secure the fullest of its vote bank. On Tuesday, the PMK has announced that the party will be contesting independently. In a statement, PMK President GK Mani has said that the decision to contest independently was taken unanimously following a meeting that was attended by party functionaries on Tuesday. 

According to reports, the meeting was chaired by PMK Founder S Ramadoss and the party's youth wing chief Anbumani Ramadoss. During the meeting, the party functionaries had opined that the party should contest independently in the local body polls by keeping the party's interest and development in mind. GK Mani penned that based on these opinions, the party has arrived at the decision of contesting independently in nine districts.

The meeting was attended by the PMK secretaries in nine districts and GK Mani has further said that those who are interested to contest in the local body polls in PMK's ticket can move their applications to the deputy district secretaries of their respective districts on September 15 and 16. The final candidates will be announced based on the interview conducted by the party's higher committee. Though the PMK hasn't announced it has fully exited the ADMK alliance and that the decision of contesting independently is only for the local body polls, the political observers say that the decision is a prelude for PMK's political game of ending the alliance with the ADMK. 

In recent times, PMK has supported the announcements made by Chief MK Stalin in the assembly for which the ADMK had staged a walkout from the floor. Amid observing the alliance, the PMK didn't fully back the ADMK's drive of boycotting the assembly and it must be noted that GK Mani had praised the Chief Minister for implementing the reservation quota for the Vanniyar community. The sources in the know have said that PMK's decision was of no surprise and that it has to establish a strong presence in the local bodies through completing sweeping the Vanniyar vote bank. 

The sources say that as most of the districts lie in the northern part, the PMK has decided not to give any room for the clash over seat-sharing and electing candidates. It also has decided not to campaign for the ADMK, which is still under the political crisis and intra-party tussle. PMK has observed an alliance with the ADMK for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and the 2021 Tamil Nadu assembly polls. In the 2021 polls, the PMK had contested in 23 constituencies, mostly in the northern part, but it had eventually ended up winning only five seats. PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss was elected to the Rajya Sabha with the support of the ADMK. 

As PMK has divorced ADMK in the local body polls, it's time for Edappadi Palaniswami & Co to fix the tussle within the party and to go for a test drive in the local body polls to know where his leadership stands at the rural local bodies. On Monday, the Tamil Nadu Election Commission has announced that the local body polls in the nine newly created districts will be held in two phases on October 6 and 9. While polling will take place in 39 unions on October 6, the remaining 35 unions will cast their vote on October 9 and the counting will be held on October 12. While speaking to the reporters, Palanikumar has said that the election code of conduct has come into immediate effect in these districts and the filing of nomination would begin on September 15 and will run until September 22.

The scrutiny of the nomination will be held on September 23 and September 25 will be the last date to withdraw the nomination and the final list of candidates will be announced on the same day. The election commissioner further said that the election will be held for 27,003 postings, including 2,901 village panchayat presidents' posts and 22,581 village panchayat ward councillors. A total of 76,59,720 voters are eligible to cast their vote in the two-phased polls. The polling will start at 7 am and end at 6 pm. The people who had tested positive for the Covid-19 pandemic and the people with the symptoms will be allowed to vote from 5 pm to 6 pm on the voting day.