CHENNAI: Recognised political parties in Tamil Nadu on Thursday unanimously demanded that the polling for the Assembly elections be conducted in a single day. However, they differed in timing and campaign period. Parties expressed their views to a team led by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, who held consultations with them here on Thursday.
While the AIADMK sought the polling in the first phase of the elections to the four states and a UT (TN, Assam, West Bengal, Kerala and Puducherry), NTK leader Seeman urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to schedule it in the final phase to minimise the gap between polling and counting, thereby reducing the time required to safeguard EVMs.
VCK general secretary D Ravikumar favoured limiting it to 15 days to curb expenditure, while Seeman called for at least 40 days to enable statewide outreach.
DMK organisation secretary R S Bharathi and N R Elango said that although 75,035 booths were announced before the SIR exercise, most collectors have not properly rationalised them or consulted recognised political parties and the public. The party urged the ECI to direct DEOs to complete rationalisation based on the final roll to enable BLA-2 appointments. Further, citing errors in names and outdated voter ID details, it called for special camps to rectify the rolls.
The DMK also flagged issues including the need to ensure approvals/orders within 24 hours of application for media advertisements, single window system to provide permissions for roadshows, meetings of star campaigners, and vehicles, appointment of high-level grievance officer to resolve doubts and grant permissions during the election process, uniform guidelines to set right disparity in the rates for election expenses, uploading Form 17C on ECI website within 24 hours after the conclusion of polling and making available Tamil translations of manuals and handbooks of the ECI.
AIADMK leaders D Jayakumar and I S Inbadurai demanded one-day polling in the first phase and equal allocation of venues for public meetings. They sought CCTV cameras at every booth, enhanced police deployment, and inclusion of central personnel in flying squads. They called for strict action against false voting and booth capturing.
CPM state secretary P Shanmugam demanded a single-phase Assembly poll, 100% VVPAT matching and receipt distribution, and curbs on money power, among others. Since CPI leaders could not attend the meeting, he also conveyed to the CEC their views similar to those of the CPM.
Former TNCC president K V Thangkabalu said identical electoral rolls should be provided to the presiding officers and the recognised political parties. He said Form 17C should be provided to political parties’ agents and uploaded to the ECI website. Karate Thigarajan of the BJP alleged that the DMK has already ‘stockpiled’ large sums of money across various locations ahead of the elections, and that the ECI should take action. Representatives of the AAP, BSP, National People’s Party, and the DMDK also expressed their views to the ECI team.