CHENNAI/SALEM/COIMBATORE: A day ahead of the counting of votes polled in the urban local body elections, the ruling DMK and the opposition AIADMK on Monday hurled allegations against one another while advising their own cadre to be vigilant during the counting process.
Chief Minister and DMK president MK Stalin, in his letter to the party cadre, charged that former minister D Jayakumar took the law into his hands and insulted a DMK functionary by removing his shirt and parading him. “The DMK will take action on this legally and when it happens, they will stand totally exposed.”
Hitting out at the AIADMK for “excesses” during the civic polls held in 2001, the CM said the DMK should pursue peaceful methods and continue to win the people’s confidence even if the opposition party attempted such acts now. Meanwhile, AIADMK leaders O Panneerselvam and Edappadi K Palaniswami strongly condemned the arrest of Jayakumar, alleging it was a sign the DMK would “go to any extent during the counting”.
“Jayakumar took the effort to prevent bogus voting. When a person is engaged in an unlawful activity or disturbing public peace, the public would catch and bind him to prevent his escape and hand him over to the police. This has happened numerous times in many parts of the State. In this case, a person was caught red-handed when he tried to cast a bogus vote. Jayakumar prevented others from beating him and advised them to hand over the person to the police. The AIADMK will thwart all such assaults through legal means,” they said in a statement.
Earlier speaking at Salem, party joint coordinator Palaniswami alleged DMK has instructed State election officials to change the results of local body elections in its favour. “We are receiving information that DMK leaders have given oral instructions to district collectors and election officials to alter election results wherever AIADMK candidates win.
The Madras High Court has directed the SEC to hand over victory certificates immediately to candidates after the counting of votes is done. But the State government has instructed officials to give the certificates only after counting ends in all wards. If that happens, we will move the court against the erring officials,” Palaniswami said.
In a similar development, at Coimbatore, electricity minister V Senthil Balaji accused opposition parties of trying to disrupt the vote-counting. He alleged the AIADMK high command had instructed its workers to gather at counting centres in large numbers and disrupt counting. “On polling day, AIADMK MLAs visited polling booths in violation of code of conduct. We have lodged a complaint with SEC about the violation. Now, we learn that AIADMK functionaries have instructed workers to unleash violence and disrupt the counting process.”