Unusual by-election will end proxy rule, says Stalin

Dismissing the respective claims of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) that they were the alternative to the Dravidian parties in the Srirangam by-election, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam treasurer M.K. Stalin on Saturday said that the parties cannot take root in the State.

At a party workers’ meeting here, Mr. Stalin said that the BJP, which claims to present an alternative to the Dravidian parties, had secured just 1.13 per cent of the votes in Srirangam in the 2011 Assembly election. The CPI (M) had secured only 0.54 per cent of the votes in the 2014 Lok Sabha election (in the State). “These are the parties which now seek to replace the DMK,” he said.

“No other party has achieved the spectacular victories or suffered defeats like the DMK. But, we have come back every time. The AIADMK too has suffered big defeats,” he said in a pep-talk to the party cadre.

The Srirangam by-election result, Mr. Stalin said, would herald the end to the proxy rule of AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa in the State. The by-election was being held due to an unusual reason of a Chief Minister being disqualified after being convicted in a disproportionate assets case.

Mr. Stalin also said that the party would take to legal recourse if no action was taken on its complaint over the “double entries” made in the electoral rolls in the State. “We are confident that the new Chief Electoral Officer will uphold democratic norms,” he said.

Earlier, in a brief chat with reporters, Mr. Stalin asserted that the DMK’s vote bank was intact and it will not be affected by the number of parties in the fray for the by-election.

On the lukewarm response to party president M.Karunanidhi’s call to the Opposition parties to support the DMK in the by-election, Mr.Stalin said it was up to the parties to accept or reject the suggestion.