Tamil Nadu rural local body elections: Transwoman, students among winners; 18,570 candidates won unopposed

Chennai: A transwoman, students and elderly women were among the successful candidates who fought the 27 and 30 December polls to rural civic bodies in Tamil Nadu. Counting of ballots for thousands of civic posts in 27 districts began this morning and it continues to be on and results have started trickling in from a number of regions. Riya, a 30-year old transwoman of the DMK was declared elected union councillor in Namakkal district’s Tiruchengode Panchayat Union. She is the first transwoman to win a local body election in Tamil Nadu on the ticket of a recognised political party, according to local officials. [caption id=“attachment_6096041” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption] Preethi Mohan, a 22-year old second year postgraduate student won as union councillor from Salem District’s Ayothiapattinam Panchayat Union. Sandyarani Jayasarathi, a 21-year old woman and a student was elected village panchayat president of KN Thotti in Krishnagiri district. Several from humble background were successful, including Saraswathi, a former sanitary worker who was elected as a village panchayat president from Virudhunagar district. Also, in districts including Ramanathapuram a number of elderly women -of age ranging between 70-80- were elected to civic posts and these were allocated to women. Polls to rural civic bodies were held on 27 December (first phase) and 30 December (second phase) in Tamil Nadu. The direct elections were to elect 91,975 civic posts in rural bodies falling under in 27 districts. Of the over 90,000 posts, 76,746 were village panchayat ward member posts and 9,624 village panchayat president positions. Also, polls were held for 5,090 panchayat union ward member posts and 515 district panchayat ward member (also referred as councillors) positions. Among such thousands of civic posts, as many as 18,570 were elected unopposed. The counting of votes were being held by deploying about 1,00,000 officials in 315 centres spread across 27 districts amid tight security provided by 30,354 police personnel. The State Election Commission, referring to the use of paper ballots in polls, said the completion of counting of votes in all the districts may happen by Friday.