Stalin holding review meeting in Salem to win Erode by-poll: Jayakumar

CHENNAI: Senior AIADMK leader and former Minister D Jayakumar charged that Chief Minister M K Stalin, under the guise of holding review meeting with district Collectors and Superintendents of police of neighbouring districts of Erode, is pressurising the officials to support his party functionaries to win the Erode East Constituency by-poll.

Under the guise of holding a review meeting, the Chief Minister held meetings with Collectors and SPs of Salem, Namakkal, Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts to indirectly exert pressure on the authorities to help his party functionaries win the February 27 by-poll. They have also been distributing meat, groceries and vegetables and cash to the electorates and not allowing them to move freely to attend the election campaigns of other political parties, alleged Jayakumar on Thursday after submitting a petition to Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo.

“It is our duty to file a complaint along with evidence to prove the anti-democratic approach and misuse of government machinery to the officials. If no appropriate action has been taken over the specific complaints, we will take further course of legal action,” he added.

Citing the complaint submitted before the ECI regarding the non-existence of around 40,000 voters in the Erode East Constituency, Jayakumar said the members of the party’s booth committees conducted door-to-door verification and submitted the report. The ECI should act immediately to weed out the names of the electorates, who migrated to other parts of the State, and the names of the dead from the lists. “If it has not been done, it will help the ruling party to create fake voter ID cards to hijack the election,” he said and insisted that they want a free and fair elections to uphold democracy.