The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Madurai News : Action against MLA sought

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 09, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Madurai

Action against MLA sought

By Our Staff Reporter

MADURAI, MAY 8. The district secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), V. Sundaram, has urged the Election Commission to ``initiate appropriate action' against an All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's Melur MLA, R. Samy, for ``intimidating State Government employees in his constituency and `pressuring' them to hand over their postal ballots to him in person''.

In a complaint to the Election Observer for the Madurai Lok Sabha constituency, Mr. Sundaram alleged that Mr. Samy had ``attempted to grab postal ballots from the Melur post-office through devious means''. A man, who claimed himself to have been sent by the tahsildar, had asked the post-master to hand over the ballots to him. But the postmaster got suspicious and declined to oblige. The post-master later cross-checked with the tahsildar and found the latter had not dispatched anyone.

He said Mr. Samy nursed an ``ill feeling'' towards government employees thanks to the indefinite strike indulged in by the latter last year.

The constituents of the Democratic Progressive Alliance contesting the elections stood by the government employees who have been `victimised'. The ruling party was now `nervous over the possible hit-back in the electoral terms from the DPA'' and in the `panic reaction', it began to `intimidate the employees and the present action of Mr. Samy was a point in case'.

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