The main opposition party in Tamil Nadu, the DMK, moved the Supreme Court on Thursday regarding the long-pending local body elections in the state. The party asked that the state government be directed to carry out a ward delimitation exercise in view of the newly-created districts in Tamil Nadu.
The DMK has reasoned that there is no clarity among political parties and citizens as to which areas belong to which wards in these new districts. This will lead to confusion in the conduct of polls, the party has said. However, the DMK approaching the Supreme Court has been slammed by the AIADMK as a tactic to delay the conduct of polls.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, DMK chief MK Stalin justified the party moving the Supreme Court, stating, “The Tamil Nadu government has not done ward delimitation until now, as per the High Court's directions. The state government has not carried out delimitation in the wards in newly-created districts. The AIADMK government is yet to implement reservation for women and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes across town panchayats, district panchayats, municipalities and corporations. This is the status as of now.”
However, in March this year, the State Election Commission (SEC) of Tamil Nadu had submitted in court that it will issue a notification for the local body elections in the state by May 31 as the ward delimitation exercise had been completed as per the 2011 census. However, multiples excuses have been forthcoming from the government every time questions have been raised on the conduct of the polls. Since then, Tenkasi, Kallakurichi, Tirupattur, Ranipet and Chengalpet have been created as new districts in the state. Recently, the Chief Minister had said that the creation of these new districts had no relation to the local body polls as polls will take place per last year's reclassification of wards.
Stalin alleged that DMK’s decision to approach the apex court is being spun by the media.
He said, “From Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami to the junior-most minister, they are continuously telling the lie that DMK is trying to stop the local body elections by going to court. This is a planned conspiracy. While we can say that they (the AIADMK) are doing this for political reasons, we cannot accept the fact that even media is pretending that there is no relation between this (narrative) and the ruling party. This is amusing and worrying.”
When asked about the allegations, Tamil Nadu Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar said, “The Election Commission is doing all this work right now. We have to conduct the elections as per the Supreme Court order. At such a stage, they have called for delimitation. This is a betrayal of democracy. At first, they were scared. Now the kitten has come out.”