BJP State president P.S. Sreedharan Pillai is planning to sue State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Teeka Ram Meena for portraying him as “someone who goes around saying foolish things” in the course of an interview to a private television channel.
Mr. Pillai told mediapersons here on Wednesday that some remarks in the interview were aimed at deliberately tarnishing his reputation.
“I have not made any statements against the district or State electoral officers. I have never tried to either violate the model code of conduct for the Lok Sabha polls or defame anyone,” he said.
During the interview, however, Mr. Meena had claimed that Mr. Pillai’s nature had been to apologise for mistakes and later commit them again.
Pillai’s claim
The BJP leader claimed he had met Mr. Meena only at an all-party meet in the State capital. “I had opposed his demand that the word Sabarimala should not be used during campaigning.
The BJP's Thiruvananthapuram district committee had also lodged a complaint against Mr. Meena’s photo being used in some posters released by the poll panel. I suspect I am being targeted for all these,” Mr. Pillai said.
Mr. Pillai said he had spoken to Mr. Meena over phone only once when certain remarks were made about the Thrissur District Collector after she issued a notice to the National Democratic Alliance candidate from the Thrissur Lok Sabha seat. “I had only said that the election process should go on smoothly and the BJP was not for any confrontation with the election machinery. Misconstruing this as an act of apology does not suit Mr. Meena’s stature,” Mr. Pillai pointed out.
