As Tamil Nadu goes to elect 234-member state Assembly on April 6, a sort of political storm has erupted after it was found that the name of former General Secretary of the AIADMK, V K Sasikala was missing from the voters’ list.
The party of her nephew T T V Dhinakaran immediately approached the Election Commission. The party sees a conspiracy behind this development and alleges that there is a design to deprive her of the voting right. The accusing finger is pointed towards the ruling AIADMK.
AMMK’s Thousand Lights candidate N Vaidhyanathan said that the government had the power to delete the names of voters only if they have died or if they apply for a change of address. He further charged that the state and central government have deliberately done this. Around 19,000 voters’ names, who are AMMK supporters, are also missing.
The BJP has put up actress Khushboo Sundar as its candidate from Thousand Lights Assembly constituency.
Sasikala, a few weeks had announced her decision to step aside from active politics ahead of the Assembly election. Many political observers are of the view that she took this step possibly because of pressure from the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Sasikala came out from jail in Bengaluru in the last week of January after completing four years’ prison-term in Rs 66 crore disproportionate asset case.
While sidestepping from active politics, Sasikala had said that she is doing so as she does not want to see DMK emerge victorious. Independent analysts are surprised over Dhinakaran’s allegation as Sasikala, by her decision, had in a way indirectly supported the AIADMK-BJP alliance.
