Election Commission behaves like BJP’s alliance partner, says DMK president Stalin

Chennai: The DMK president M.K. Stalin on Monday slammed the Election Commission (EC) saying it was behaving like “another alliance partner” of the BJP in Tamil Nadu.

Accusing the EC of bias, the DMK chief said the Commission was allotting election symbols to parties in the AIADMK-BJP alliance as per their wishes while rejecting the requests for a symbol by opposition parties in the state.

“It is condemnable that the EC is trying to tar the face of democracy”, he said in a statement here. Stalin said the poll panel in Tamil Nadu had not acted on the DMK's memorandum to transfer all the district collectors as well as election and police officials who had been working at one place for more than three years.

“While allowing the violations by the ruling party, the EC officials are registering cases against only opposition parties for poll code violations,” he alleged.

Drawing attention to withholding the by-polls for three constituencies--Ottapidaram, Aravakuruchi and Thiuparankundram-Stalin doubted whether the EC “has surrendered the responsibility of holding elections to the ruling AIADMK”.

“Even to hold bye-polls, we are forced to fight legal battles due to the indifference of Election Commission, which is painful,” he noted.

Urging the EC to act without fear while executing its constitutional responsibilities, the DMK chief said, “to create a conducive atmosphere for conducting free and fair elections, the EC should transfer the police and election officials who have served more than three years at one place.”