The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Charge that Navin Chawla acted in my favour baseless: Jayalalithaa

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Saturday, Feb 13, 2010
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Tamil Nadu

Charge that Navin Chawla acted in my favour baseless: Jayalalithaa

Special Correspondent

Jayalalithaa

CHENNAI: AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa on Friday said there was no basis in the charge that Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla had acted in her favour and postponed publication of electoral rolls since the AIADMK had not made any representation seeking revision of electoral rolls in Pennagaram Assembly constituency.

In a statement here, Ms. Jayalalithaa also pointed out that she had been a strident critic of the Election Commission on the ground that elections to the Lok Sabha and by-election to Assembly constituencies in the State in the last three and half years had not been conducted in a free and fair manner.

She said it was PMK leader S. Ramadoss who first demanded postponement of election to the constituency as the election date was very close to Pongal festival.

Later she also made a similar demand and the EC convened an all party meeting to discuss the issue. All the political parties barring the DMK and the Congress wanted the EC to postpone the election. The EC accepted the request of the political parties and deferred the election.

Ms. Jayalalithaa said the EC had decided to postpone publication of electoral rolls and ordered for an inquiry after many political parties and general public complained about large scale deletion of names from the voters list.

“The AIADMK has nothing to do with it,” she added.

Ms Jayalalithaa claimed that Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi was infuriated because Mr Chawla had invited her to participate in the diamond jubilee celebration of the EC. “Mr. Chawla also tried to contact Mr Karunanidhi, but he refused to respond to the call. Later he had conveyed his inability to attend the function through his family member,” she said.

She described as “anti-democratic” the attitude of the Chief Minister that the EC should abide by the dictates of the ruling party and should not entertain opposition leaders.

“It is highly condemnable,” she said.

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