Tamil Nadu parties united in call for single phase state elections

Ruling and opposition political parties in Tamil Nadu have urged the Election Commission to make it a single phase assembly election in the state. An election commission delegation, led by chief election commissioner Sunil Arora, arrived in Chennai on Wednesday on a two-day visit to assess poll preparedness in Tamil Nadu.

In complaints to the poll body, the DMK alleged deletion of voters’ name, spotlighted AIADMK’s spending on advertisements in newspapers, among others.

“Previously, we have submitted six representations to the EC for clarifications in the voters’ list but they did not answer,” said DMK’s organising secretary RS Bharathi.

“We have also asked the commission to investigate two complaints and reply within three days of booths being illegally shifted in Coimbatore and a strong room in Chennai’s Madhavaram not being safe as EVMs for 16 constituencies are stored here with broken doors. We have submitted photographs,” he added.

The ruling AIADMK has called for elections to be conducted in April due to the scorching heat in May. “We have asked for polls in the fourth week of April,” AIADMK leader Pollachi V Jayaraman told reporters after the meeting.

The BJP, AIADMK ally, urged for election dates to be after Tamil New year which falls in the month of April. “We have asked for the elections not to be too close to the Tamil New Year because it is celebrated widely by people,” BJP’s state general secretary KT Raghavan told reporters. “We have urged them to be careful about facilities provided for senior citizens as some parties could indulge in malpractices.”

The Congress wanted the interval between election day and counting to be short

CPI (M) leader TK Rangarajan told reporters that they raised the issue of not receiving EPIC cards and highlighted election malpractices. “They arrest wrongdoers during elections but they have never been punished in case. They are let off after polls. There are pictures of money distribution but there is no information about what happened to the accused or the money.”

Though the state has always had single-phase elections, all parties made this request following the three-phase voting in Bihar last year amid the Covid-19 pandemic. They had made a similar request when election officials visited the state in December.