TIRUCHI
Welcoming the Supreme Court directive on the conduct of the local body elections in Tamil Nadu, former Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president and Member of Parliament of Tiruchi Lok Sabha constituency Su. Thirunavukkarasar on Friday charged the ruling party with staggering the polls with the intent of ‘indulging in malpractices.’
The DMK was right in approaching the Supreme Court to highlight the shortcomings in the election process. The State Government ought to have completed the exercise of demarcating wards in the nine newly created districts before notifying the election, Mr. Thirunavukkarasar told mediapersons.
The government's move to conduct polls separately for rural and urban local bodies was unnecessary and would lead to malpractices. Prolonged delay in conduct of local body polls was the cause for shortage of funds at the level of panchayats, he said.
As a former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram had the constitutional right to voice his opinion on the state of the economy. The Central Government's incarceration of the former Minister for over 100 days in the jail without filing charge sheet was an act of political vendetta, he said.
Commenting on the encounter killing of four rape-accused persons in Hyderabad, Mr. Thirunavukkarsar said the Congress was for capital punishment for rapists, but through the due process of law. Whatever be the gravity of crime, vigilante justice cannot be accepted, Mr. Thirunavukkarasar said.
