DMK treasurer M.K. Stalin on Wednesday said that free and fair elections to the State Assembly would not be possible as long as the AIADMK government was in power and the present crop of bureaucrats were allowed to continue in their posts.
“Irregularities are being committed by the ruling partymen with the connivance of the officials. The Chief Electoral Officer has proved that his predecessors were no match to him when it came to helping the ruling party. A time will come and he will be made accountable for his conduct,” Mr. Stalin said.
“Whether it is the AIADMK or DMK rule, officials should be shifted before the elections and those from other States and Central services be used for conducting the polls,” he told The Hindu while travelling by the Chennai Metro Rail.
On whether he would favour President’s rule in the State as a stopgap arrangement till the elections are held, Mr. Stalin said it could be decided only after eliciting the opinion of all the political parties.
He alleged that media reports and photographs which appeared in newspapers had brought to light how the ruling party councillors in various parts of the city had indulged in bogus voting with impunity.
When the DMK was in power, it implemented projects worth thousands of crores including the TIDEL Park, Anna Centenary Library, flyovers, desalination plants, IT highways, Thermal Power Plants and a New Secretariat. But the AIADMK government cannot claim to have implemented any useful project, Mr. Stalin said.
He also condemned Chief Minister Jayalalithaa for inaugurating the Chennai Metro Rail through video conferencing. “Atal Bihari Vajpayee personally inaugurated the Delhi Metro when he was Prime Minister,” Mr. Stalin said.
