DMK delegation meets Governor, demands dismissal of government

A delegation of DMK  airdashed to Mumbai and met Governor CH Vidyasagar Rao to seek the resignation of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami and five other ministers in the wake of the by-elections to the prestigious RK Nagar constituency that was cancelled by Election Commission for charges of massive corruption and bribery.

The three-member DMK team led by R S Bharathi and comprising TKS Elangovan and Tiruchi N Siva - all of them MPs -  carried a letter of M K Stalin, the working President of DMK and Leader of Opposition of Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, which also demanded a CBI probe into the charges.

Rao, who is the Governor of Maharashtra also holds the additional charge of Tamil Nadu, that is witnessing a chain of political developments following the death of J Jayalalithaa - the power struggle, swearing in of O Panneerselvam as the CM, emergence of Sasikala as the party general secretary, sacking of the Chief Minister, her being sent to jail and Edappadi Palaniswami made head of the government. The power strugle between the AIADMK (Amma) headed by TTV Dinakaran and  AIADMA (Puratchi Thalaivi Amma) headed by Panneerselvam has become the talking point of TN politics.

The RK Nagar bypoll, earlier scheduled for Wednesday, has been cancelled by the EC following reports of bribery and corruption and Income Tax raids on Health Minister C Vijayabaskar as well as some important members of the AIADMK (Amma), the Sasikala-led  faction, in which cash was seized.  It came to be noticed that the money was being paid to votors.

In the memorandum submitted to Governor, Stalin said: "The Chief Minister and his puppet Cabinet ministers particularly Vijaya Bhaskar appears to have entered a criminal conspiracy to spend nearly Rs 100 crore of ill-gotten wealth to bribe each voter in the constituency....they have instructed party workers to go house by house, lane by lane and pay up to Rs 10,000 per voter and to distribute gifts like lamps, sarees, veshtis, milk tokens and phone recharges....these persons in fact misused the state's administrative machinery including police vans, official cars of ministers fitted with red lights to carry the cash meant for distribution for voters."  Quoting media reports, it pointed out that documents seized showed that bribes were given to 2.24 lakh voters of the 2.63 lakh voters.

While seeking dismissal of the Chief Minister and others, Stalin went on to write: "...I can say with surety that no other state in India has had the ignominy of having its sitting Chief Minister and council-of-ministers act as bribing agents, shamelessly tarnishing not only the office they hold but also the edifice of democracy which is manifest in the electoral process. Such flagrant and unrepentant acts of these persons should not go unpunished lest it sends a message to one and all that there are no consequences for such corrupt and nefarious schemes."