Maintaining its winning streak since the Assembly elections, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Sunday won 14 of the 15 posts of ward committee chairman in the Chennai Corporation.
All the 14 candidates were elected unopposed.
Voting was necessitated for only one ward committee chairman – Ambattur zone.
DMK candidate wins
The election saw a few ruling party councillors contributing to the victory of the DMK candidate. As soon as this result was declared, AIADMK and DMK councillors and partymen engaged in a heated argument outside the Council hall, marring the otherwise peaceful elections.
The DMK candidate for the ward chairman of Ambattur zone Joseph Samuel won against AIADMK's V.Alexander by one vote. This was despite AIADMK having ten councillors in the zone. The DMK has four and the Congress one.
As soon as the result was announced by Corporation Commissioner D.Karthikeyan, who is also the election officer, DMK councillors and party cadres standing outside started celebrating the win. This angered the AIADMK cadres and led to mild tension.
The AIADMK won the ward committee chairman post in Manali Zone where it has only three councillors, while the DMK has two and PMK and DMDK one each.
Mayor Saidai S.Duraisamy and Deputy Mayor P.Benjamin were present during the elections.
The names of councillors elected Chairmen are: M.Dhanaramesh of ward 9 (Tiruvottiyur Zone), K.Thangasivam of ward 16 (Manali), D.Velayudham of ward 26 (Madhavaram), B.Karthikeyan of ward 43 (Tondiarpet), R.Palani of ward 49 (Royapuram), M.Sundar of ward 64 (Thiru Vi Ka Nagar), Joseph Samuel of ward 85 (Ambattur), A.E.Venkatesan of ward 106 (Anna Nagar), S.Shakthi of ward 112 (Teynampet), A. Manickam of ward 134 (Kodambakkam), K.Sekar of ward 155 (Valasaravakkam), V.N.P.Venkatraman of ward 166 (Alandur), S.Murugan of ward 179 (Adyar), P.Rajaram of ward 183 (Perungudi) and N.Sundaram of ward 197 (Sholinganallur). Later, 15 councillors for each of the six standing committees were elected unopposed as members.
