The Congress, its most prominent ally, got one Mayor and two Deputy Mayor posts, while the other key allies — CPM, CPI, Thol Thirumavalavan’s VCK and Vaiko’s MDMK — have received one Deputy Mayor post each. The local body heads will be elected on Friday.
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As most of the DMK candidates are set to win across the state, considering the majority the ruling alliance enjoys in the local bodies, Chennai is set to get its first Dalit woman as Mayor.
R Priya, 29, is the granddaughter of Chennai Sivam, a former DMK MLA. M Mahesh Kumar is the Deputy Mayor candidate in Chennai. The Chennai Mayor’s post reserved for Scheduled Caste women helped Priya assume the key position, which was once held by Chief Minister MK Stalin.
R Priya
Though the number of seats it contested and won was relatively lesser in the DMK alliance, the Congress has got six presidential candidates to municipalities. The CPM and the VCK have two municipality heads each, and the CPI and the MDMK have one each.
Besides Priya, the DMK has deputed several women to Mayor and Deputy Mayor posts, including Kalpana in Coimbatore city corporation, an AIADMK bastion, where she would not only be the first woman Mayor, but also the first from the DMK.
Eleven of the 20 Mayor and five of the 15 Deputy Mayor posts have been assigned to women.
Kavitha Ganeshan in Karur, Indrani in Madurai, Vasanthakumari Kamalakannan for newly created Avadi and Tambaram corporations in Chennai, Mahalakshmi Yuvaraj for Kancheepuram, Sujatha Anandakumar for Vellore and Sundari for Cuddalore are some of the other women Mayor candidates of the DMK.