Coimbatore: If not a win-win situation, it would have been at least a face-saving result if the AIADMK and BJP had fought the recently-concluded election for Coimbatore Corporation in alliance.
Take this: In ward 6, the DMK candidate won by securing 3,549 votes while the AIADMK candidate polled 2,887 votes. The victory margin was 662 votes. The BJP candidate came third securing 1,337 votes. The DMK would not have won the ward if the AIADMK had continued its alliance with the BJP. Together, they would have polled 4,224 votes and won with a margin of 675 votes.
In wards such as 12, 13, 15, 28, 53, 69, 71, 73, 88, 89 and 91, the votes split by BJP helped DMK and its alliance party candidates to clinch victory.
In many other wards, candidates from both the parties would not have faced humiliating defeat if they had contested together. AIADMK had lost deposits in 20 wards while BJP got its deposit only in 13 wards out of 97 it had contested. BJP could not even open its account in the city with the votes split.
A BJP functionary said that it would have been a win-win situation for both AIADMK and BJP had they contested together in the city. “However, contesting alone has helped us gauge our actual strength. We have not only managed to get third position in most of the wards, but also pushed AIADMK to third and fourth positions in sizable wards. The test of strength will help us to come up with better strategies in upcoming elections,” he said.
The DMK along with alliance parties won 96 out of 100 wards in the city corporation. AIADMK won three wards while SDPI won one.