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EC may go ahead with Madurai by-poll
Published on Fri, Jun 22, 2007 at 20:11, Updated on Mon, Jun 25, 2007 at 16:42 in Health section
Tags: Election Commission, MK Karunanidhi , New Delhi
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New Delhi: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi had said he would start a hunger strike in Delhi if the Election Commission postpones by-election in Madurai West on June 26.
The EC however, might not take the extreme step of postponing the by-elections in Madurai.
Sources have told CNN-IBN the EC feels that the situation has improved in Madurai.
Earlier S Palanimanickam, Union Minister of State for Finance, in a statement on Thursday night had said, “The state government wants that the by-election should go on without any criticism but if the Election Commission postpones the poll, the Chief Minister has decided to go on indefinite fast in Delhi.”
Karunanidhi’s warning had come after reports that the Election Commission was considering postponing the by-poll by a week because of malpractices.
The commission had calle Chief Electoral Officer in Tamil Nadu, Naresh Gupta to Delhi to report if the election should be postponed.
The Commission on Thursday told had Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary L K Tripathi it was concerned about the "serious breach of law and order, distribution of money to voters, people being brought to the constituency from outside, registration of false cases and laxity on part of police and administration in taking action.”
The DMK is not contesting the by-election and has allotted the seat to the Congress but would consider Election Commission postponing the date an assault on its prestige.
Karunanidhi’s son Azhagiri's leads the DMK in Madurai and the results would be reflection on him after the Dinakaran office burning incident.
The Commission had transferred top district and police officials and filed cases against the AIADMK, Congress, BJP and DMDK for violations of the model code of conduct.
Last week, it transferred District Collector S S Jawahar and Police Commissioner A Subramanian.
The by-boll was necessitated by the death of rebel AIADMK member S V Shanmugam. The DMK and AIADMK have accused each other of bribing voters and planning violence on June 26.
Shanmugam, who won the seat in the May 2006 Assembly polls by 3,457 votes, changed his loyalty to DMK and was sidelined. AIADMK has fielded Sellur Raju of the backward Mukkulathore community.
The Congress had nominated K S K Rajendran, who too is from the Mukkulathore community.
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