The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Karunanidhi writes to EC

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Karunanidhi writes to EC

Special Correspondent

DMK seeks more time for changes in electoral roll

CHENNAI: Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M. Karunanidhi on Monday urged the Chief Election Commissioner to extend beyond May 30 the time for applying for changes in the electoral roll.

In a letter to the CEC, Mr. Karunanidhi said the Election Commission had given the electoral roll to various political parties only on May 20. The time given to raise objection was only 10 days. In the course of scrutiny of electoral rolls, the party functionaries found that "lakhs and lakhs" of names were omitted and that they had been mentioned under the heading "999".

Listing examples of the "999" inclusions, he said Ponneri Assembly constituency had 20,000, Erode 67,566, Modakurichi 17,975, Vellakoil 12,611, Kankeyam 12,048, Sathiamangalam 12,334, Namakkal 14,595, and Thiruchengode 25,160 "999" inclusions.

A majority of the names that were omitted and mentioned as "999" belonged to the Opposition parties in the State. "The ruling party in Tamil Nadu with the connivance of Revenue and Police Officers wantonly has done this grave mistake in order to benefit during the course of the election," he said.

"Therefore in order to rectify this electoral roll, we are taking steps to raise our objection with full particulars and this needs some more time to collect details from all districts. All the Opposition parties in Tamil Nadu wanted some more time to raise our objection," he said. Chief Electoral Officer Naresh Gupta had said that there would be no more extension of time beyond May 30.

Mr. Karunanidhi pointed out that this was not the final date for the whole of Tamil Nadu as additional time had been given to the tsunami-affected areas. "Under these circumstances, I request the Chief Election Commissioner to understand the real position in Tamil Nadu and give one more month's time to raise our objection with full particulars before the Election Commission. If this is not considered, it would create a major confusion in our State. I hope you would interfere in this regard immediately and extend the date to apply for correction in the electoral rolls," he said.

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