Naalaya India, a civil society organisation, has urged the Election Commission to direct the AIADMK and the DMK to remove the freebies promised in their election manifestos, as these violated a number of provisions of the Constitution and the Representation of the People Act.
‘Undue influence’
The promises were also likely to vitiate the purity of the election process or exert undue influence on voters in exercising their franchise, the organisation claimed. In a memorandum to the Chief Electoral Officer, Rajesh Lakhoni and Chief Election Commissioner, Nasim Zaidi, representatives of the civil society, asked the EC to disqualify the parties from the May 16 polls if they failed to “annul the freebie promises”. The petition was signed by M.G. Devasahayam of Forum for Electoral Integrity, Suresh Babu of Naalaya India, S. Raghavan of Lok Raj Sangathan and Raja Rajan of Nermai Ani, on behalf of the civil society.
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Arguing that the promise of freebies violated the Election Commission’s mandate for free and fair elections, it said, “Distributing private goods and services, which are not for public purposes from public funds, clearly violate Articles 162, 266(3) and 282 of the Constitution.”
EC urged to disqualify parties if they don’t annul promise of distribution of goods