CHENNAI: DMK will boycott the ensuing by-election to the Pudukottai Assembly constituency as the Election Commission will not be able to “deliver justice” to it, party leader M Karunanidhi said in Chennai on Thursday.
“Even the notification for the election as jointly announced by AIADMK and some from the EC after consultations. Two days prior to the notification, the State government has specially allocated Rs 50 crore for Pudukottai Municipality. Therefore, the Election Commission will not be able to render justice to any opposition fighting the election there,” Karunanidhi said.
The DMK leader’s decision has come as a shock to the prospective candidates, including party’s Pudukottai unit secretary Periyannan Arasu and others, as the party had lost the seat with a thin margin of 3,101 votes
to the CPI candidate SP Muthukumaran, who died in an accident.
With the CPI already taken a decision not to contest in the by-poll, it will be a cakewalk for the ruling AIADMK in Pudukottai.
Jayalalithaa has announced Karthik Thondaiman, the party’s MGR wing functionary, as the candidate. She has deputed a battery of ministers to carry out electioneering in the constituency.