Chennai, Feb 13 (TIWN) The February 19 urban local body elections in Tamil Nadu are turning out to be crucial for the ruling DMK, as the party wants to stamp its authority in the state by scripting continuous victories in electoral hustings.

The DMK commenced its winning spree in the 2019 general elections when the party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) won 38 of the 39 seats at stake in the southern state.

It was a landslide for the DMK and its allies, given that the party was facing a major election for the first time after the demise of its patriarch, M. Karunanidhi.  The 2019 rural local body elections turned into another major show of strength between the DMK-led front and the AIADMK-led front. The DMK front won comfortably and it was a major show of strength by the emerging M.K. Stalin, who proved his mettle in the elections. 

R. Padmanabhan, Director, Socio-Economic Development Foundation, a Madurai-based think-tank, told IANS, "The DMK emerged as a major political force in the back-to-back elections in 2019. These elections led to the emergence of Stalin as a major political leader of Tamil Nadu after the demise of his father and patriarch of DMK, the late M. Karunanidhi." 

After the general elections and the subsequent rural local body elections in 2019, the state went into the high-stake Assembly polls in May 2021.  In the Assembly elections, the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) won with comfortable majority against the AIADMK-led front, and returned to power in the state after a gap of a decade with Stalin getting anointed as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.  While the DMK-led alliance won 159 seats in the Assembly elections, the AIADMK-led front National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had to remain contend with 75 seats.