The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Names of government staff deleted from voter list: Vardarajan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 23, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Names of government staff deleted from voter list: Vardarajan

By Our Staff Reporter

NAGAPATTINAM, APRIL 22. The State secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), N. Varadarajan, has alleged that names of government staff and their family members were deleted from the voter list prepared for the Lok Sabha elections.

Talking to reporters here today, he claimed that the party received information that the names were found missing in the lists of several constituencies, particularly in Chennai. It lodged a complaint with the Election Commission (EC).

Maintaining that aversion among government staff to the ruling party could have been the reason for the mass deletion, Mr. Vardarajan said it was reflection of the misuse of power by those holding fort in the State, in spite of EC efforts to ensure free and fair elections.

He urged the EC to keep a watch on a proposal to deploy police in booths. For, the CPI (M) received information that only `pro-government' personnel would be posted inside every booth. Even if policemen were posted inside the booth, they should be not selected from the same district. Ruling partymen indulged in `power theft' for illuminating election meeting venues at a time when the Electricity Board suffered heavy line loss in transmission, Mr. Vardarajan said.

Claiming that there was an overwhelming public support for the Democratic Progressive Alliance, he said parties, which were not allotted a seat and organisations such as Dravidar Kazhagam, which had remained in the AIADMK fold till yesterday, pledged their support to the DPA.

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