State secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) G. Ramakrishnan on Sunday said the remarks of Chief Minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president M. Karunanidhi that the Election Commission was trying to convert the opposition party into the ruling party in Tamil Nadu amounted to threatening the EC, which was striving to end the influence of money power in politics.
“He (Mr. Karunanidhi) has an ulterior motive in levelling such charges against the EC. It is because of the fear of losing at the hustings. But for money distribution, his alliance would be able to do nothing in the elections. His party is trying to adopt the ‘Thirumangalam formula' (distribution of cash to voters) all over the State in the current elections also. Hence, he has chosen to find fault with the EC which is only doing its job to ensure a free and fair poll.”
The CPI (M) leader said though the Chief Minister had addressed three election meetings in the past few days, “he has not bothered to touch any issue which is of relevance to the common man like price rise, corruption and power cut. But all he has done is to criticise the EC.”
He was talking to media persons after releasing the party's election manifesto. He contended that the EC had all the powers to transfer the officials to ensure free and fair poll and it need not consult the State Government in this regard.
To a question on the “competitive populism” of both the DMK and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam promising freebies, Mr. Ramakrishnan said, “I will be able to speak only about my party's manifesto.” Similarly, he said that at present there was no plan of addressing a public meeting along with the party's alliance leader Jayalalithaa. Mr. Ramakrishnan announced that party general secretary Prakash Karat and politburo members Sitaram Yechury and Brinda Karat would campaign during the first week of next month.
