CHENNAI: Denying DMK’s allegations of irregularities in the Rural Local Body elections, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Tuesday told the Assembly that the defeat of two AIADMK candidates with a minor margin in his native constituency and denial of recounting for them, was testimony to the fact that the elections to RLBs were held in an honest manner.
“Any allegation against the counting of votes will tantamount to suspecting the integrity of the government employees. They counted the votes in a transparent manner, standing all along for more than one and a half day. If the DMK finds faults, are they charging that the government employees committed the irregularities?” CM asked responding to the charge levelled by DMK MLA J Anbazhagan.
Palaniswami went on to say, “The State Election Commission has acted in a fair manner. Only because of this, 450 independents who do not belong to either the ruling party or the opposition parties, could win in the elections. This shows that the elections were held in a neutral way.”The chief minister also said the DMK-led alliance had scored just 1.59% of votes more than the AIADMK-led front in the RLB elections. In the elections to district panchayat ward members, the AIADMK alliance got 39.60% of votes while DMK alliance received 40.35% - i.e., just 0.75% more than the AIADMK alliance.
Intervening during the speech of M Ramachandran (DMK), CM said the inquiry commission on Jallikattu protests would submit its report soon. It took time since the commission had to conduct inquiries in various places. Law Minister CVe Shanmugam said Justice Rajeswaran, who is heading the commission, had sought a month’s time to file his report, citing his health condition.
CM also said the enquiry into the Sterlite protests was being conducted by the CBI under the supervision of the court and cases in this regard were pending before the court. Regarding the charge that desilting of Mettur dam should not have been done as it was not feasible, CM said Mettur dam was constructed 83 years ago and the desilting had been carried out five kilometres away from the restricted area.