Chennai: The AIADMK has accused the ruling DMK of setting up ‘Pattis’ (covered enclosures to temporarily detain voters in select spots) at six places in the Karur Lok Sabha constituency as it was done during the by-election to the Erode Assembly constituency in February, 2023.
The lawyers wing state secretary of the AIADMK, I S Inbadurai, told media persons at the Secretariat after submitting a complaint with the Chief Electoral Officer on Friday that detaining voters in the ‘pattis’ would facilitate the bribing of voters as they would be gathered in particular places.
Though the setting up of the ‘pattis’ was against election rules, the district election officer at Karur had not taken action against the illegality despite complaints and hence he had approached the Chief Electoral Officer, he said.
He said that instructions to the party workers to set up the ‘pattis’ to mobilise the voters and then bribe them were coming from the Puzhal Prison, suggesting that former Minister Senthil Balaji was orchestrating the moves for the elections.
Alleging that plans were being made to transport voters by Coimbatore bound private buses for distribution money to them, Inbadurai said that the announcement of an international stadium in Coimbatore by Chief Minister M K Stalin violated the Model Code of Conduct.
The BJP said that the DMK government had filed false cases against their State President and candidate from Coimbatore constituency, K Annamalai, for not closing his campaign within the stipulated 10 pm deadline though he had not done anything like that.
Spokesperson of the State BJP, A N S Prasad, in a statement wanted the appointment of IAS officers from other States as the local officers were prejudiced against the BJP and that a conspiracy was being hatched to arrest all BJP functionaries before the elections to defeat their candidate Annamalai.
