With less than a week to go for polls to the Vellore parliamentary constituency, the DMK has demanded the deployment of paramilitary forces across all booths in the constituency. The party has alleged that the AIADMK is planning to incite communal hatred and indulge in poll violations on polling day. Elections to the Vellore Lok Sabha seat are set to take place on Monday, August 5.
According to one report in the Times of India, DMK Principal Secretary and Sriperumbudur Lok Sabha MP TR Baalu submitted a petition to the Vellore district collector on Wednesday. “Vellore constituency has a good number of Muslim voters. Being an ally of BJP, the ruling party is planning to create commotion among the voters by creating communal hatred. Hence it is necessary that at all booths should be protected by paramilitary forces,” he reportedly said.
He also demanded that the Election Commission of India (EC) prevent AIADMK from distributing unofficial booth slips. “All state ministers, including the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, are camping in the constituency. The AIADMK’s election team consists of more than 300 members, including ministers, MLAs and district secretaries. Anti-social elements are roaming in the constituency in support of the ruling party. The EC must prevent issuance of unauthenticated booth slips by the AIADMK. Polling should be webcast from all the 1,553 booths in the constituency,” he added.
According to one report in the Deccan Chronicle, the senior DMK leader said that all booths in the constituency must be treated as vulnerable, as opposed to the 179 of 1553 designated as such by the EC.
The elections to Vellore Lok Sabha seat, which were supposed to take in the second phase of 2019 General Elections on April 18, was rescinded just two days before the state went to polls. Multiple reports— from the Director General of Income Tax (Investigation), the Election Commission and other authorities— on the search and seizure in properties of DMK functionaries in Vellore ultimately led to polls being cancelled. The move brought Tamil Nadu into national notoriety for the polls to the parliamentary constituency became the first in the country to be cancelled on account of cash-for-votes.
AIADMK’s alliance partner and Puthiya Neethi Katchi chief AC Shanmugam is facing off against DMK’s Kathir Anand, who is also the son of senior DMK leader Durai Murugan.
Source: The News Minute