THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:The Election Commission has been reduced to a mere spectator as the Chief Minister, the ministers and the top officials of the Secretariat are openly violating the election code of conduct in Aruvikkara, BJP state general secretary K Surendran said on Sunday.
In a statement here, he also accused Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala of threatening certain TV serial actors who had campaigned for the BJP over phone.
Surendran said that even though the Commission had set a cap of `16 lakh on election spending, both the LDF and the UDF have spent 100 times the amount for Aruvikkara bypolls. Both the fronts are flowing liquor and money in the constituency, he said and adding that the Excise Department was facilitating illegal brewing.
Election materials worth crores of rupees have been stocked in secret godowns and the offices of the CPM and Congress, he alleged.
He further alleged that five policemen who were on security detail to the late G Karthikeyan when he had been Assembly Speaker are now in Aruvikkara campaigning for the UDF candidate and Karthikeyan’s son K S Sabareenadhan.
Both the LDF and the UDF had thrown democratic propriety to the winds in campaigning for the Arvikkara election, K Surendran alleged.
