CHENNAI: DMK principal secretary and party MP, T.R. Baalu, has urged the election commission to monitor all the 1,553 polling booths in Vellore Lok Sabha constituency through web cams, and also to prevent issuance of unauthenticated booth-slips by the ruling AIADMK.
In a memorandum submitted to the Returning Officer, Vellore Parliamentary Constituency on Wednesday, Baalu said booth-slips should be distributed by the Election Commission to all voters. The party urged the election commission to draw adequate para-military forces to be deputed in all booths of Vellore constituency to ensure free and fair election. Also, local holiday should be declared for BHEL, Ranipet, under the negotiable instrument act on the date of polling, August 5.
Though it is a by-election, all the state ministers including CM, Deputy CM are camping in the constituency to win this election, as they totally lost in the general elections in April. The ruling party election team consists of 300 members containing state ministers, MLAs district secretaries and all other party leaders, and this itself shows their modus operandi.
“The state machinery is being abused and misused by the ruling party to the maximum extent possible to achieve their objective. The election commission listed 179 booths out of 1,553, as vulnerable, but seeing the ruling party's gathering in collusion with the state government officials, all booths in Vellore shall be treated as vulnerable,” Balu said.
