Chennai: The Supreme court ruling earlier on Friday that elections to rural local bodies in Tamil Nadu could be held barring in the nine districts where delimitation process is yet to be completed, is a “historic judgment”, said Chief Minister, Edappadi K Palaniswami.
Responding to the verdict, Mr. Palaniswami told reporters in Salem that he hoped that the State Election Commission (SEC) will now proceed with the task of holding the elections by issuing a fresh notification for the rural local bodies polls.
“We will face these elections in alliance with our allies and come out with very big success,” said Mr. Palaniswami exuding confidence.
The Chief Minister and co-coordinator of the AIADMK reached Chennai later on Friday evening to commence talks with the party's allies, including PMK, DMDK and BJP.
Mr. Palaniswami said once the fresh notification was issued by SEC, “Our party cadre will work with full vigour”. He also took a dig at the DMK leader M K Stalin for “talking all kinds of things out of fear of defeat in the local bodies' polls.”
The DMK had tried to stall the panchayat and nagarpalika elections even in 2016 and they had tried even now.
But the Supreme court rejected their plea and declared that the elections could be held in all the other districts barring the nine recently carved out districts- Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu, Vellore, Ranipet, Tirupathur, Villupuram, Kallakurichi, Tirunelveli and Tenkasi-.
In Salem, earlier in the day at a party function presided by Mr. Palaniswami, over 200 persons from various political parties including DMK, CPI and AMMK joined the AIADMK, from various parts of Salem district.
