O Panneerselvam team upbeat, Deepa hails move

State BJP president Tamilisai Soundararajan said, “It would not have been a democratically held election, if it had been conducted in such a vitiated atmosphere.” 

Senior BJP leader and Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan earlier told DTNext that flaunting money in the by-poll was like challenging the EC on what action it would take in such a scenario. The result was out now, he added. 

Moreover, the mood was upbeat in the O Panneerselvam group. “We thought the EC would act against those who distributed money and hence, I was shocked when they cancelled the by-poll,” said AIADMK (PTA) faction candidate E Madhusudhanan on Monday. But, their spokesperson C Ponnaiyan was more upbeat and said, “We are very sure of winning even when the polls are held again based on the results of a survey we conducted. A group of 48 students from MCC (Madras Christian College) spoke to more than 2,800 respondents from the RK Nagar constituency over two days. They found that the people are weary of money being used to buy votes.” 

“It is good. The Election Commission must ensure that the fresh polling is free of interference from the state government,” Deepa, MAD Peravai secretary and niece of late chief minister J Jayalalithaa told this paper on Monday.